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!