Ten Steps Back

So, we had less than 24 hours to revel in our good news.

At about 6pm last night, David's oncologist called to let us know that he needed to see us today to go over some things that were found in a separate pathology report than we had been notified about.

Apparently, our pathologist had recently been at a conference where testing for retinoblastoma had been a topic of interest. It was becoming more and more frequent that children who had been given the "all clear" signal were redeveloping the disease. So, there is a new test that has been shown to point to a new pattern of spread. Our pathologist came back from the conference and retested David's eye for this particular pattern of spread and the test was positive. Now, this does not mean absolutely that David's cancer has spread outside the eye, but it shows high probability. There was no sign of spread down the optic nerve which is very good.

So, it is the consensus of David's team of Doctors that David undergo another round of treatment which will include chemotherapy and possibly radiation and/or surgery. The chemo treatments will include several different drugs than last time, and they will be much more intense, much more frequent, and will last much longer. We don't know the absolute specifics yet, but each heavy treatment will likely involve 2-4 days in the hospital.

Next week will be a slew of tests and prep work, and then the week after that we are hoping to start the chemo.

I can't actually tell you all how we are doing with this news, because I don't really know. I think my brain has mostly shut down. We are coming to learn that medicine is just a series of good guesses, so our best guess at this point is to continue down this road and pray that God's grace has paved the way (which we know it has!). I was hoping to have a big celebration for David's birthday and good report, but I am going to have to rethink things now. Such is life.

We appreciate your continued prayer for our family as we try to make the best possible decisions about David's care and also in finding a home.

David - as always - is just happy and bouncy and has no idea what is coming, but it certainly is fun to see him enjoy life.

I will update with more news later....when I know more news to give

-Kim