Sorry for the delay in the update....
The doctor's have isolated the gene responsible for Abby's cancer. It is known as the K-ras gene. This basically means we know the gene causing the problem however there is no medicine to fix it. It also means that it changes chemo medication. The chemo that Abby will begin in 4 weeks( Primatrexate ?) has never been tried on a child so the doctors need to formulate the dosage and side effects for us. In actuality it means they are going to give her much stronger dosages than they give the adults. In the beginning of treatment I didn't really understand this... you mean our kids get HIGHER and STRONGER doses of chemo than the adults?!?!?! Then I learned it is because a child's body allows organs to generate new cell growth in place of the damaged chemo cells... unlike adult bodies.
We discussed surgery and while the doctors would be willing to remove some of the tumors on the peripheral
lining the greater concern are the tumors centrally located on or near the main artery in the lung. They can not be surgically removed due to possible damage to the artery since it supplies all of the blood and basic life to the lung. There is a new procedure that is being done in where a radiologist goes in with a heated biopsy needle and burns the tumor. Sounds fairly simple till we learned that they would have to cut open her chest, crack apart her rib cage and fillet open her lung to actually see the tumors and then they would have to be so precise... so 'perfect' that they didn't end up damaging the arteries anyway which would result in what we are trying to avoid... killing the lung. Dr. Rapkin thinks we would have a hard time finding a surgeon AND a radiologist who would be willing to do this together anyway. Not that he wouldn't try and find us one if that is the direction we decide to go. However, Tate and I have ALWAYS said from the moment Abby was diagnosed that we would never put her through anything that we have not prayed and have a peace about.I cannot have one without the other. If God wants us to walk the path to surgery He'll let me know... Well, that peace has not touched my soul yet..... that's not to say God has given His final answer just that maybe I'm not through praying over this one!!!
St. Judes will not take Abby because they are not doing any studies on her disease and they would not recommend traditional pediatric chemo which really surprised Dr. Rapkin. We are okay with this. There are no accidents where God is abiding. If St. Judes will not take her then that means God has other plans... and His plans are so much better than mine!!!!!
So that's where we are right now. Doing okay and taking it one day at a time....
Believing in Abby's Miracle,
Tina & Tate
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