Romans 8:25 "But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."

We have returned from Mexico. It was an uneventful trip which is good. But there is some bad news along with what we interpret as good news. I'll lay the bad news on first.

We arrived at the hospital Monday morning and had all the pre-op work done including blood work. The expectation was we would decide on where to target for the treatment injection, and that would take place on Tuesday. However, my body had other plans. The bloodwork showed that my platelets were extremely low. Normal levels are approximately 150,000-400,000. Mine on Monday were 33,000. That often happens when I have chemo, and usually I recover after 2 weeks, however, this was not the case this time. Platelets are important for blood clotting and prevention of bleeding. Since my levels were so low, there was a very high risk that I would have internal bleeding if we proceeded with the treatment and we therefore made the decision not to treat during this trip. I could and probably should have tested before going, however, the trip was already booked and paid for with no option for refund so either way we were going to Mexico, and it gave us the chance to meet all the doctors in person which was helpful. I was also given oral immunotherapy drugs to take which were compounded there at the hospital pharmacy and something I could NOT have gotten here in the US, so I would have had to travel there to pick up this medication anyway.

So, here's the good news (or so we think). The PET scan I had the week before going showed NO signs of metastasis or active tumors! So, when we arrived, we did do a CT scan so that we could determine the best course of action. My blood work indicates that there are still cancer cells active in my body, but for now they are not in a tumor form. This is similar to where we were in April when bloodwork was indicating the cancer had returned but had not grown into a tumor.

Because of this, Williams Cancer Institute does not plan to do the ablation part of the procedure since they don't want to ablate any healthy tissue. What we will do, is the intratumoral immunotherapy injection. We can still see spots on the liver that indicate where active tumors were, and we will target those areas for the next time we go. This may change the number of treatments needed, but we won't know this until we get a first treatment and see what kind of response I have.

So, the new plan is this....I will be having one more chemo session next week (assuming my platelet count gets back up to a level that allows chemo). Then I will put a hold on chemo for 5 weeks and return to Mexico week 6. At that time, my platelet levels should all return to normal, and I should be good to go. We will make a decision on restarting chemo once I return from Mexico, however, if I do restart chemo, I will be requesting a reduced dosage since I have been having a much harder time recovering after. There is always the risk that something is going to grow during that 5-week break. If that is the case, we know what to target when I return to Mexico for the treatment, so it won't necessarily be that bad if it does happen.

Thank you everyone for your support! The prayers are helping more than you know!

PS. It was about 100 degrees in Mexico. They were having a heat wave. I had to buy a hat to protect my head so I didn't burn :-) It should be more tolerable in the high 70's when we go back, but I will pack that hat every time from now on.

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