Robert Gonzalez

Many family members and friends are aware of of these details but for those who are not…

Robert was diagnosed with Pleural Mesothelioma on his left pleural lung lining and chest wall lining in March of this year. He spent 2 weeks in hospital after having surgery and biopsies done. While the initial prognosis was not favorable we got a second opinion with Oncologist Dr. Ernani from the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix Az. One of his specialties is Mesothelioma; he didn’t sugarcoat anything however his outlook was more positive and gave us more hope.

He even set us up with a Thoracic Surgeon Dr. D’Cunha. After going over all the data he gave us less then 10 percent chance of surgery but told us he had just operated on a patient with similar circumstances, it took 2.5 years to get there but the patient was doing well.

Plan of treatment 4-6 Chemo treatments every three weeks then after every two treatments they would do scans.

First Chemo started in June… had scans done in August right before third Chemo. Dr Ernani was amazed at the reduction. He said it didn’t even seem like the same patient. After the fourth Chemo Dr. Ernani thought it was time to see surgeon again. He wasn’t sure it could shrink anymore. After consulting with the surgeon board it was agreed that two more treatments would be beneficial.

Robert saw Dr. D’Cunha beginning of November. He was not expecting to see Robert so soon. He did minor surgery to biopsy the lymph nodes in chest and abdomen to make sure the cancer hadn’t metastasized. Lymph nodes were negative . Yay!!

Surgery is scheduled for December 13th at the Mayo Hospital in Phoenix AZ. We are traveling there December 7th for pre surgery appointments. Plan is to be in Phoenix at least a month before traveling home.

We will keep you updated.

Robert and I would like to thank everyone for all the thoughts and prayers. We believe Robert would not be where he is in this process without them!! We love you all!!