On Tuesday Jan 22, Andy went in to see the doctor for what we jokingly referred to as his “funny looking belly button”. He suspected and the doctor confirmed that he had a small umbilical hernia. Along with that he was experiencing some pressure in his upper abdomen. The doctor order some blood work to see if anything was off.
Wednesday morning Andy was notified by the doctor that his liver enzyme levels were elevated in the blood tests. The doctor recommend that he do an ultrasound to see what his liver looked like. On Thursday morning Andy went in for an ultrasound and was told shortly after that the ultrasound showed two masses in his liver and they would need to do a CT Scan, which he was able to do Thursday afternoon.
Friday morning the doctor called and said they had bad news. Based on the results from the CT scan he has a rare form of cancer that originated in the appendix and escaped through the appendix wall and has caused Psuedomyxoma Peritonei (PMP), which is a Jelly like tumor growth in the abdominal cavity. When we say rare, we mean only 1,000 cases per year.
Through a series of events that we believe only could have come through God’s blessing, Andy was able to get an appointment Monday morning at Mayo Clinic with an oncology surgeon who specializes in these forms of abdominal cancer. The surgeon believes that the CT scan does show a large amount of tumor growth in the abdomen with some closely surrounding the liver causing the bile ducts to be constricted. The surgeon believes it to be a low grade PMP which means it is a slow growing tumor that does not respond to chemotherapy. The main treatment would be surgery to remove the tumor, or as much as possible. The goal is to remove all the tumor material to eliminate the chance of the tumor returning, however at the moment the surgeon does not think that will be possible.
He has surgery scheduled for Friday Feb 22nd and will be in the hospital for about a week.
We are asking for many prayers. If you would like to send anything please send us a direct message. We also have a GoFundMe page set up to help with unexpected costs along the way.
