OJ Loves His Sugar

Hi all! I hope your week is off to as great of a start as ours is! Yesterday the wholeeee gang all trekked to MD Anderson for the "big" appointment! Oscar is the nurse that always takes us back when we meet with Dr. K and I still don't think he is used to the large OJ posse. One day Oscar, one day :). Well once we got back there Dr. K came right in to see us. Even after getting the good news from the X-ray Thursday I think we were all a little anxious on what Dr. K was going to tell us. Well low and behold the first words out of his mouth were "I'm very pleased with the results!" He let us know that with Dad's specific type of cancer you usually don't see a change but Dad's tumor has significantly shrunk!!! I cannot tell you how hard it was not to get up, scream, and do a happy dance! The tumor on his lung shrunk from 3 inches to 2 inches which is just such a blessing from God! The tumor on the adrenal gland remained unchanged, but Dr. K doesn't know if that is metastatic from the lung cancer, a benign (non-cancerous) tumor, or something that was there previously that has no correlation with the cancer. We asked if he wanted to find out but he said no because it wasn't the main point of concern.

So what now? Well next Tuesday Dad will go in for a minor surgical procedure to get what is called a port. A port is a small device placed beneath the skin that will connect a catheter to a vein. This will be the main entry for his chemo from now on (versus using his arm veins every time). Dad's veins are very sore from all the chemo's and getting blood drawn over the next few months, so it was time! Thursday Dad will start a maintenance chemo that he will go in every three weeks for. The chemo will be Avastin and Altimta, two of three drugs he has been on the last few months. Removing the Cisplatin will also remove the negative side effects chemo gives, so no more nausea! WOOT WOOT!

Dad will be on the maintenance chemo for as long as the tumor responds, which Dr. K thinks Dad will respond great especially since he responded so great to this last round. We asked about the biopsy and Dr. K said it isn't urgent to get more tissue right now since the chemo is working for Dad and we don't need to look at other options. All great news!

On a humorous note, my second favorite part of the day yesterday was this: Those of you who know my Dad know he loves his burgers and fries... and is not the biggest fan of lettuce, ESPECIALLY the kind that pokes you and gets stuck in your throat (aka spinach). Well Cindy had asked about diet as she had done some research that said cancer likes sugar... as soon as that comment came out of her mouth Dad goes "And so does OJ!" nodding his head with this huge smile. I wanted to die of laughter, I wish I had it on video!

Thank you all for the kind words, prayers, and support! We are so blessed to have the best support system in the world! God is clearly working for Team OJ and I cannot wait to see the blessings he brings the next few months! Have a great week!

The most handsome man I know!

A Months Worth of Recaps

Wow it has been forever since I have written! I kept saying "I'll update the blog after this event, or this birthday, or this trip" and well before you know it a month flies by! It has been a jam packed month and I can't believe all that has happened in that short amount of time! First we were able to celebrate Dad's Birthday on the 21st and mine on the 2nd...we celebrated with food of course!

Dads 23rd (haha) Birthday

My 23rd Birthday

Dad has also gotten to take a few vacations, one to Austin, one to San Diego, and one to New Mexico. Always good to get out of the heat we are already having!

My sorority sisters from college also put together a Relay for Life team in honor of Dad which was incredible! I was so glad I was able to go up to Flagstaff and participate with them!

 

 

Dad also has gotten a ton of golf in! It is such a blessing that he is still able to go out and do what he loves most with his best friends!

My favorite smile in the world!

Dad and his girls on Cinco de Mayo!

Well Dad's "last" chemo was a bit of a rough one. He was exhausted and nauseous for a full week. The anti nausea drugs that MD Anderson had prescribed did a whole lotta nothin but thankfully Dad found his miracle drug, zantac! It helped get rid of the nausea completely which I can only imagine how thankful Dad was for that! Remember that pain Dad has gotten for a day or two after every chemo? Well he got it again this round and went immediately to MD Anderson to get an EKG (which came back normal). This time it also lasted much longer (a few days) and still gets the pain every now and then.

We met with Dr Siever on Friday for a check up. The appointment went well, we love Dr. Siever so it is always great seeing him! We all have been extremely curious on how the tumor has responded to the chemo so we asked if Dr. Siever could take an Xray (We couldn't wait 5 more days for the CT scan!). We were able to look at the 3 different Xrays and see the progress of the tumor. Although the Xray isn't the clearest form of looking at the progress, we were clearly able to see how much the tumor has shrunk! It was so cool (I was all ready to post the Xrays on the blog so you could share the excitement, but they wont load on my computer, darn!) to see that and we all did a little bit of a happy dance!

This upcoming week is a busy one for us. On Monday Dad gets blood work and the CT scan (this is what clearly shows the 3D image of the tumor). Tuesday we meet with Dr. K to go over the scan and see where treatment goes from here. If Dr. K wants to do another round of chemo that will also start this week. We are all very anxious to get the results of the CT scan back, but I know that God is working for and through my Dad and there is no need to worry! Thank you all for your continued prayers and support, I promise it wont be a month before I update next!