December 19

Sorry for not posting sooner.  Lately it always seems to be some good news and bad news.  Good news is that the results of the PET scan showed some totally dead tumors in her liver with others that were about 10% alive.  The doctor feels the disease in the liver is under control and would not recommend any further treatments unless that changes.  He did say one factor in that is Karen's current health.  So the bad news is the PET scan showed several more tumors in each of her lungs than we had thought.  We will be talking more about the PET scan with her oncologist on Monday.

So the embolism procedure to cut off the blood flow to her hemorrhoids is not going to happen.  Instead she will have the TIPS procedure to, at least partially, bypass the portal vein in her liver.  That will slowly reduce the fluid buildup in her legs and reduce some of the other effects of her portal hypertension.  We had originally thought the TIPS procedure would not be a good idea but after talking to the doctor about the risks and options for adjusting or even reversing the bypass we felt it would be good to go ahead.  The doctor thinks the TIPS alone will help reduce the bleeding from the hemorrhoids.

The fluid that Karen has been retaining has gone down over the last two weeks.  We are keeping an eye on her blood tests to make sure she doesn't run into complications.  On Wednesday of this past week she needed another blood transfusion where she was given two units.  Still, some of her tests remain low.  There isn't much we can do about that so we try to make the best of it.

The meeting with the oncologist on Monday promises to be interesting.  One of the last times Karen spoke to him he did not want to do any more chemo until her blood counts improved.  Since she is not tolerating this regimen as well as we had hoped he is probably going to change things up or wait on the TIPS procedure. Karen is nervous about having an almost two month gap between chemo rounds. Hopefully the doctor will have an answer. Both of us are a little worried about the appointment but trust things will work out for the best.

James and Rebecca are doing well.  They both love to play and have fun.  The other day Karen and I were talking when things suddenly got a little too quiet.  I wandered into the next room to find James had opened three of Karen's gifts.  I hurried and blocked Karen's view and asked her to grab a bag so I could stuff everything in it.  Luckily Karen didn't see any of the gifts but it's a reminder of what kids do.  Leave it to the kids to lighten the mood and remind us of what it's all about.

Rebecca and James just before bed time.

Braden