Thursday, June 11, 2009

Therasphere Treatment Postponed

With the Therasphere treatment, comes a risk. (That is the treatment where the doctor places a catheter in his leg and runs it up the Femoral Artery and into the Hepatic Artery. Once that takes place, the radioactive material, encased in tiny glass spheres, will flow in through the blood vessels and into the tumor and start to attack it.) If Dave’s blood vessels in the liver are damaged, it is possible that the radiation spheres will travel into his lungs and GI Tract. That would create a very dangerous situation for Dave. However, if his blood vessels are all in tact and healthy, the procedure will work just fine. Fortunately, there is a procedure called ‘mapping’ that will enable the doctor to know if the blood vessels are damaged or not. They will not do the Therasphere treatment until they get the results from the mapping and know that it is safe to do. Dave’s mapping appointment is on Tuesday June 16. It will take one week before they can actually do the Therasphere treatment. It won’t start until at least Tuesday June 23.

Dave’s medication(Nexavar) came today. He started it this afternoon.

On another note, the surgeon, Dr. Ott called Tuesday afternoon and said that if it hadn’t been for the cancer in the lymph nodes, he would have operated on Dave this week and pulled the tumor on the liver out. He said he is confident that he could do it and although it would be a long procedure and long recovery, Dave would have been fine. Dr. Ott also said that if the radiation cleans out the cancer in the lymph nodes, he will go ahead and operate. That is really positive news for our family! Dave really needs the operation. The doctors have told us it is the only way to cure this type of cancer. Keep praying that the radiation will go well on the lymph nodes and that the main tumor on the liver will be able to come out! Thanks for your love and support.

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