Some very good news today from the specialist in Indiana!!!!

ere’s an update from David Ryan and Tiffany:

We just got off the phone with Dr. Einhorn! To summarize, he’s in favor of the “wait-and-see” approach. In other words…

• He doesn’t advise that DR have more chemo at this stage.

• He doesn’t advise that DR have surgery to remove the remaining nodules on his abdomen or lungs. 

Here’s some additional info Dr. Einhorn provided and reasoning for his recommendations going forward:

- DR had nodes in and around his lungs/diaphragm, but those are gone. 

- The mass in DR’s abdomen was bigger than a kidney (hence all the pain he’d been experiencing last Spring). This mass is now 95% smaller. It could be a small mass or scar tissue. If it is a small mass, there is a very small chance it could could contain a cancerous teratoma. Teratomas can grow very slowly over time (but they don’t move around/spread) so CT scans are necessary to monitor its growth. Because of that, DR will have a CT scan in mid-October and then additional CT scans every 4-6 months for the next few years. If we see growth, the abdominal mass will need to be removed via surgery.

- DR’s AFP tumor marker (from blood tests) are elevated and slowly creeping up…. but they are still under 25. Einhorn is not concerned with his AFP markers. If they do go above 25, more chemo will be needed.

- The other tumor marker that Dr. Batts had been concerned about is called LDH. Dr. Einhorn is NOT concerned about the LDH levels because they still fall within the range of normal and he doesn’t consider it to technically be considered a “tumor marker” because an elevated LDH is indicative of many things (i.e. exercise, inflammation in the body, etc.) and isn’t concerning to him at all.

- Dr. Einhorn is going to be helping/advising us with anything that comes up in the future. He gave us his email to contact him directly. He’s dictating everything he told us and passing it to Dr. Batts as well.

THIS IS ALL AMAZING NEWS AND WE’RE VERY HAPPY! 👏🏼🎉💕

Obviously, we’d still appreciate any and all prayers (because this isn’t “over” for a few years yet)… but this is a WIN for all of us and we’re so grateful to all of you for helping us get to this point. So thank you! 🥹