For those of you wanting updates on John, here is the whole story in a nutshell:
Mid-August, John noticed two small lumps behind his jaw bone. Within a couple weeks we noticed that pretty much his whole left side of his neck was enlarged.
Mid-September, he had a biopsy done. It took about a month to get back the results. The diagnosis was Metastatic Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma. While we were waiting for the test results to come back, John had several scans and a couple MRIs done. They found tumors in his left arm bone marrow, in his nasal cavity, and they classified his neck/jaw as two separate tumors. (They also found reason to do a colonoscopy but that came back clean-no cancer in his colon.)
Because this is a rare childhood cancer, we weren't sure if Huntsman had the necessary experience treating it in an adult, but we are glad to have found out that the treatment they recommend is the same as the hospital that probably sees the most cases of this cancer in adults.
Now here we are at mid-November. He has completed one cycle of chemotherapy at Huntsman Cancer Hospital. The tumor has already shrunk 2 inches. Even though the tumors might appear to be gone within the next couple of months, there may be traces of cancer cells, so treatments will continue until about October 2015 just to make sure all the cancer is killed.
One cycle of treatment is:
1st week - overnight stay in hospital for 4 different chemo drugs. (These made him really nauseous, tired, and sore for the whole week.)
2nd week-half day in hospital for 1 chemo drug. (This just made him tired)
3rd week - 5 day stay in hospital for 2 different chemo drugs given every day. (This first time with this treatment turned into a 6 day stay in hospital due to some changes in how the drugs were given. He got home Saturday and was really sick, but is already at work today. He has been able to eat somewhat normally and has mostly just been tired from this treatment.)
4th week - no treatments
I'm not sure what else you all are interested in knowing, feel free to call/text/or leave a message here. We really don't mind answering questions or talking about what's going on. Thank you all for your continued prayers, love, and support!
Kelli, the blog is a great idea, thanks. We want to route with your family, pray with you and anything else we can do.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea to do a blog. We have been hoping to get some more details on the situation, so we appreciate it. We will continue to send as many prayers your way as we can.
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