October 28, 2007

Garrett had an appointment on Friday with his original Oncologist, Dr. Saker, for his first consultation after getting his diagnosis. Dr. Saker recommends Chemoembolization for the liver. For this treatment, Garrett must be hospitalized for several days. An I.V. will go directly into his liver and release chemo beads into the liver. To do this, they must cut off the blood supply to the liver. It is very painful so the hospitalization would be for pain management and to monitor the I.V. Only half of his liver can be done at a time and then they would repeat it on the other half. Dr. Saker still recommends radiation for his lung. These two treatments can't be done at the same time. Dr. Saker has ordered a Brain Scan to be done on Saturday, 11/3/07. I believe this is to see if the cancer has gone to his brain. Dr. Saker will also be ordering a colonoscopy. We do not have a date for the colonoscopy yet.

Garrett and Mom will be going next Friday, 11/2/07, to get a second opinion from the Kaiser Permenente Oncologist.

Dr. Saker has trained at the Moffett Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. He has a call in to Dr. Kvols who I mentioned in my previous blog entry.

Garrett is having a lot of low back pain, he aches all over, and he is very tired which are all symptoms of Neuroendocrine Cell Carcinoid Cancer. Please continue to pray for him.

October 26, 2007

Tomorrow (10/26/07) and next Friday (11/2/07) Garrett has two different oncology appointments for their opinions on neuroendocrine cell carcinoid cancer. Thanks to Garrett's nephew, Michael Byrnes, we have a contact in Tampa, Florida at the Moffett Cancer Center with a Dr. Kvols. Dr. Kvols specializes in this type of cancer and is ranked 7th in the world in his field. In the meantime, Mom and Garrett are just trying to educate themselves on this type of cancer.

Thank you all for reading this blog and for your continued support. Our family really appreciates it.

October 22, 2007

Garrett finally has a diagnosis. It is Neuroendocrine Cell Carcinoid Cancer. It is a very, very uncommon and very rare. It is also very hard to diagnose, obviously. They are investigating what they feel would be the best treatment. The surgeon wants them to get two different Oncologist's opinions for the treatment just because it is so uncommon. The conventional chemo and radiation are not used on this type of cancer. They want to do more testing because they feel it may be in other places than just the lung and liver. They suspect it could be in his colon, intestines, and/or stomach becuase he has had severe stomach bloating. Garrett also has an appointment with a Cardiologist tomorrow. I mentioned in my previous entry that his lips turned blue right before his biopsy last week. The surgeon recommended that Garrett have a cardiac workup.

October 16, 2007

Garrett had the needle biopsy of his liver today. The Radiologist is very concerned about his liver. The Radiologist had a Pathologist with him while he did a very aggressive biopsy. They feel they got a lot of good samples. The lab at Northside Hospital is processing the samples and if the results are still questionable, the Radiologist will send the samples to the Mayo Clinic. They are hoping this biopsy will give us the answers we need for the liver. Garrett came home very sore today. He had complications after the procedure due to severe high blood pressure. It was 220/130 and they couldn't get it to come down. He was held in the extended recovery area until they got the medications to respond. We hope to have the results on Thursday or Friday of this week. The Radiologist's assistant noticed that Garrett's lips were blue when he was admitted today. Now they want him to have a cardiac workup.

Your thoughts and prayers through all of this are so appreciated. Thank you!

October 15, 2007

Last Tuesday night, 10/9/07, Garrett had another MRI with contrast. The doctor feels that there is still a questionable area in the liver that he needs to biopsy again. This lesion can't be reached surgically. The liver (needle) biopsy will be done in the morning at Northside Hospital in Atlanta. The doctor hopes to have the results by Wednesday night or Thursday morning.

Please keep Garrett in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow morning. He and Mom really appreciate everyone's support.

October 2, 2007

Garrett had his consultation with the general surgeon today. He wants to wait on the laparoscopic liver biopsy and present Garrett's case to the cancer board (20 doctors) to review before he does anything. He feels that the previous needle biopsies got into the lesions successfully and that the laparoscopic biopsy probably wouldn't show anything different. They will get back to Garrett and Mom after the cancer board reviews everything. If the cancer board decides that the biopsy is needed, it won't be until the end of next week.

October 1, 2007

The surgical lung biopsy has been postponed for now. Tomorrow Garrett and Mom will meet with a general surgeon for a consultation and schedule a laparoscopic liver lesion biopsy. The MRI absolutely confirmed the three 6cm lesions in the liver but there is no distinction as to whether they are malignant or benign. After the liver biopsy report comes back, they will determine whether or not the surgical lung biopsy is necessary. I will update again after tomorrow's consultation.