Obviously last week was devastating for us all, and difficult just waiting…. I left Mansfield Friday night, headed to the Cape feeling helpless not having heard from the Dr.'s office by the end of the week. Then at 9pm, en route I finally got a call from Dr. Friedmann.
After ½ an hour on the phone with her, I found myself finally starting to get my strength back for the next battle.
Our first step is surgery; get the tumor out asap, it’s too close to the mediastinum.
During surgery, have the Radiation Oncologist ready to administer radiation to the tumor site while Liam’s on the operating table. This allows them to target the tumor site, and shield other organs in the area. There’s one operating room at MGH that has the setup to get this done… our target is about a week and ½ out. Should know the date by Wed/Thursday.
The other option was to try six more weeks of chemo to shrink the tumor before going in for surgery, but as noted above, we’re a little too close to some other vital organs to take that chance.
Meanwhile, Dr. Friedman (and crew) will work out plans for the combination of drugs/therapy to line up next… initial thought was that we are looking at 10 more months of chemotherapy, and additional radiation.
In addition to this all, we’ve contacted Dana Farber / Children’s to arrange for a second opinion. All of Liam’s scan’s, reports, etc... are on the way to Dr. Holcombe Grier. He of course wants the DFCI experts to review everything, and go in front of next week’s tumor board… So no appointment there until July 5th.
Sooo, a little bit of a race here, either way – we want the surgery asap, so If the surgery date comes up before the 5th, we are going ahead as planned, otherwise, we’ll give Dr Grier and team a chance to review Liam's situation as well.
After ½ an hour on the phone with her, I found myself finally starting to get my strength back for the next battle.
Our first step is surgery; get the tumor out asap, it’s too close to the mediastinum.
During surgery, have the Radiation Oncologist ready to administer radiation to the tumor site while Liam’s on the operating table. This allows them to target the tumor site, and shield other organs in the area. There’s one operating room at MGH that has the setup to get this done… our target is about a week and ½ out. Should know the date by Wed/Thursday.
The other option was to try six more weeks of chemo to shrink the tumor before going in for surgery, but as noted above, we’re a little too close to some other vital organs to take that chance.
Meanwhile, Dr. Friedman (and crew) will work out plans for the combination of drugs/therapy to line up next… initial thought was that we are looking at 10 more months of chemotherapy, and additional radiation.
In addition to this all, we’ve contacted Dana Farber / Children’s to arrange for a second opinion. All of Liam’s scan’s, reports, etc... are on the way to Dr. Holcombe Grier. He of course wants the DFCI experts to review everything, and go in front of next week’s tumor board… So no appointment there until July 5th.
Sooo, a little bit of a race here, either way – we want the surgery asap, so If the surgery date comes up before the 5th, we are going ahead as planned, otherwise, we’ll give Dr Grier and team a chance to review Liam's situation as well.
Besides all this, Liam is enjoying the time at the cape. Thankfully He has no idea what all the fuss is about....
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