The past month has certainly been a busy one.  We had an appointment with a genetic counselor. He had the option to participate in a genetics study that looked at 85 different genes for mutations that are known to cause an increased risk of cancer. We just got the results back on that test and fortunately they did not find any mutations. This was good news so we don’t need to worry about any of the girls having an increased risk of pancreatic cancer.  Next on the appointment schedule was his 2 month CT scan. Unfortunately we had some increased stress for a few weeks when they found 2 soft tissue nodules that were “suspicious for possible tumor implants”. The nodules did show on the prior CT scan in March, but for whatever reason they didn’t consider them concerning at that time.  After a CT scan, PET scan, a needle biopsy and 3 VERY long stressful weeks, we were relieved to find out that the nodules did not show any signs of malignancy and he remains cancer free!! After all that testing, the doctors believe that there are some sutures remaining that his body is having an inflammatory response to.  They will continue to monitor them but they will most likely shrink away over time. As far as his chemo is concerned, we have been battling being able to keep all his blood counts within acceptable levels to be able to receive his treatments. One of the counts dropped low enough where he now has to give himself injections for 7 days after each treatment to help bring his white blood cell levels up.  Then when he went in for his 5th treatment, his platelet level was too low so he end up with a 1 week delay in his treatment to allow his body additional time to recover. Unfortunately there isn’t anything they can give him to help raise his platelets and it is par for the course with the treatment he is on. They push his body to the limits and then make adjustments to his medications that will hopefully prevent things from dropping too low again. His blood levels were within the parameters for treatment #6 but they are still marginal so we still may see some additional delays and med adjustments for his remaining 6 treatments.

In between all the doctors visits we are doing our best to enjoy life!  We finished up our virtual teacher gig the first week in June, squeezed in an amazing trip to Yellowstone last week and have been enjoying life with our new puppy Turbo. There is nothing like a puppy to take your mind off all the problems of the world!  🐶 We are looking forward to being able to enjoy the summer. 

Please continue your prayers for his blood levels to stabilize and for the chemo to continue to do its job of killing off any cancer cells that might remain in his body. 🙏🙏🙏