MD Anderson--Trip #2

We spent the last 2 days in Houston for more appointments at MD Anderson.


On Wednesday we saw a pediatric radiation oncologist, Dr. McAleer. She went over some of the results of all the scans Trace had at his last appointment. All the results, were "good". CT and ultrasound showed very little of the tumor left and they even said it could be some scar tissue from the original surgery. Also, all the lymph nodes look good with no evidence of involvement. At this point and as long as the pathology on the tumor from his next surgery comes back with the same grade, he would NOT need radiation. YAY!!! :))) BUT, if the pathology changes or it has increased in grade to intermediate or high or if any of the lymph nodes are positive with any cancer cells, we would do Proton Therapy Radiation for 5days a week for 6 weeks starting approximately 2-4 wks after surgery.


Thursday we spent the morning at the zoo for some fun time and then headed over to the hospital for an appointment with the surgeon, Dr. Lai. He scheduled the surgery for October 15th. He will do a superficial parotidectomy with possible selective neck dissection--which means he will make an incision starting at the top of his ear in the front, go down and around the ear lobe to the back and curve back down and around to the front along and under the jaw bone. He will remove the top lobe of the parotid gland, check the facial nerve for any tumor involvement and then check all the lymph nodes in his neck, removing them as needed. They will send some of the tumor for a quick pathology, but we will not know the final pathology for a few days, which will then determine the next step of either scans every 3 months or radiation.


Trace will be in the hospital for 1-2 days with a drain and then released, with followup in a week. Both doctors did mention that Trace was the talk of the Tumor Board meeting and that they would follow his case for probably the next 10 yrs due to its' rarity in occurrence and also in children.


Thank you very very much for all your prayers, thoughts, emails, texts, private messages, etc!! They are very much appreciated. Please continue praying for the surgery, his doctors, the pathology results and recovery.


Continue praying for all the children currently fighting cancer as Childhood Cancer Awareness month comes to a close....to some of us, that month is each and every month year after year after year. I have connected with a couple of moms here in Louisiana through facebook whose children are also fighting....9 yr old Dawson in Many who is about to go on his Make a Wish trip and 4 yr old Katie from Monroe who is currently at St. Judes--include these children in your prayers.



Thanks again!! And as Trace says "Cancer Sucks!!" :)