Going Home?

The word this morning is that Chris may get to go home today.  He is a bit cranky in the hospital and it would be great to go home.  The nurse says that's a good sign that he's feeling better.  What they are waiting on is the culture of the bile they took from his gall bladder on Monday evening during his surgery.  There is a bacteria growing in it and they are waiting for it to grow enough to tell specifically what kind of bacteria it is and what antibiotic will be needed to treat it.  In the hospital, they are giving him two general I.V. antibiotics that covers a lot of bacteria but they want to get to the specificity of the infection before they release him.

We hope to still make the appointment with Dr. Harris at SCCA tomorrow to see what options exist in clinical trials.  If not tomorrow, then we will reschedule as soon as we can.  Our oncologist, Dr. Gold came to see us this morning, as he does every morning.  He is ready to start Chris on a new chemo cocktail if there are no trials that Chris qualifies for right now. 

The biggest risk right now is of his gall bladder bursting, similar to appendicitis.  A lot of people have asked us why they don't just take out the gall bladder.  I asked that question this morning...I figured, since they were considering surgery to insert a drain from his gall bladder to either his stomach or externally, that would all take recovery time as well so why not just take out the gall bladder?  The answer...there is too much cancer in and around the gall bladder and they can't cut through the cancer.  It doesn't heal like normal cells, for one thing, and Chris would probably bleed out.  The other risk, with any of the surgery options, is that there is a high likelihood that this would cause the cancer to spread.  Because of this, they are not going to do another surgery at this time.  We need to pray that his gall bladder doesn't burst and that the next treatment will shrink the tumors to alleviate the pressure on the organs. 

Miracles do happen and there is still a possibility that we'll find a treatment that has more of an effect on Chris's cancer.  Through all this, we take comfort in God's promises, like John 14:1-4, shared with us by good friends yesterday:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. ² My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. ⁴ You know the way to the place where I am going.” 

As always, thanks for your prayers, good thoughts, positive energy and support.

With love,
Wendy