Tami Dick

Today Tami starts her journey for healing. We are at Texas Oncology where she is taking her first chemo treatment.
Tami has been diagnosed with "collecting duct adenocarcinoma of the kidney". It is a rare cancer that is seen in only about one percent of all kidney cancer. Our MD Anderson doctor has only seen a couple of cases, and our local oncologist has never had to treat this type of cancer.
In September, Tami had her left kidney removed , but they discovered that the cancer had spread to her lungs and thyroid.  The odd thing is that she has kidney cancer in her lungs, but not in her remaining kidney. The treatment will be chemotherapy on two consecutive Mondays followed by one week without, and then the cycle begins again. The treatments on the first Mondays are a staggering seven hours. We will return to MD Anderson in January to rescan and see what progress has been made.
We feel blessed to have two doctors that we are very comfortable with. Our Fort Worth oncologist is Dr. Asad Dean, and our MD Anderson oncologist is Dr. Amishi Shah. They will be working in tandem to treat the illness. We have been told by both doctors that a cure is unlikely and that the goal is to shrink the tumors or at least to keep them from spreading further. We still have hope though!
We are so appreciative for all of the love and support we have received from our family and friends. Every kind gesture has been uplifting to our whole family. Please keep Tami in your thoughts and prayers. We are big believers in the power of positive thinking and prayer. Thank you for visiting her Caring Bridge page and I'm sure that Tami would love to hear from you if you would like to leave her a message.
Let the healing begin!