I know everyone has been checking for updates since yesterday. I'm sorry for the delay. Yesterday we left the oncologist feeling like there was still a lot of unknowns. Today has been a little better so far but, still a few unknowns.
Let me first say that today we were told that Jody's cancer has not followed the standard 85% of esophageal cancers. He is in the 15% that the cancer really seems to do what it wants. This is NOT a BAD thing. This is actually good in the sense his Dr.s our more on this. They our consulting more and checking more things. There is nothing standard about his treatment because of this. As a matter of fact our radiation oncologist said that instead of just sending emails they are having full meetings about Jody regularly to discuss him and the best course of action. Jody is keeping them on their toes!
Yesterday we saw Jody's oncologist and attempted to put a plan of action into place. I definitely saw the frustration yesterday from our oncologist, that is usually pretty easy going. Apparently the biopsies taken were not sent to the right lab to find out which treatments would work on them. He did call and have it expedited to find out which of the three treatments he is looking at would work. He also told us that in the last two years since the initial diagnosis there has been new treatments come out. It looks as though Jody will be a candidate for a clinical trial. We won't know till we go back on the 4th which one of the three but, this really is great news. We discussed radiation and had not made a definitive decision as to what would happen with it as of yesterday.
Today we met with Jody's radiation oncologist and decided against radiation at this time. Yesterday's oncologist said that we would have to have reduced chemo if we went with radiation at the same time and he wanted to be as aggressive as possible. Today our radiation oncologist agreed fully with yesterdays decision as well as pointing out that he does not have definitive markers this time and would not know where the end lines for radiating would be. Both Dr.'s feel after a few chemo treatments we should move forward with radiation if all is looking good from a chemo stand point.
His entire team feels that they can stop the spread and contain this and that is what we hope for. Jody and I know this is not the last battle but, we also know there is new treatments being researched daily and many breakthroughs happening. Thank you to everyone for your continued prayers, positive thoughts, and support system.
We do truly have the most amazing, parents, family, church family, and friends. Everyone has really rallied around us to support Jody. It was amazing when we left school Wednesday. He could hardly leave his classroom. His kids would not stop hugging him.
I almost forgot. Jody asked me to mention if anyone is texting him from an iphone he probably is not getting it. He has switched to an android and messages are still trying to go as an imessage. Please make sure it sends as an sms.