News from the PET scan report

Hi everyone--

I'm sorry it's taken a few days to update everyone on the Dr's report--I was hoping to be able to leave all this blogging to the young mom's and the fun activities of their little families, but it looks like we may have to keep everyone updated (those who want to be) on our situation for a while longer.

We saw the oncologist Thurs and we were hoping to be told everything looked good, see ya later. Well it was not that easy, the lymph nodes that were enlarged are smaller and the spleen is smaller, but new lymph nodes are now envolved and the Dr wants us to go to the Huntsman center in Salt Lake to consult with the bone marrow transplant team. They will review the report also and consult with Zed's Dr to decide if a bone marrow transplant should be done. Apparantly these cancer cells were resistant to the chemo and are now growing for whatever reason. The Dr feels that a transplant may be the only thing that can bring a cure as there are no other chemo drugs that can be used on his type of cancer.

They are supposed to call us Mon (8th) to set up the appt. and then will consult with Zed's Dr on how to proceed. They will try to use his own marrow if possible (I don't understand completely how this is possible, since his marrow is compromised from the chemo?), if this isn't possible they will test his siblings and then if no match is found, there is a donor bank. (Children are not good canidates) We understand when it's done, he would be in the hospital for 2-3 weeks and then recovery for about 1-2 months. He would have to sort of be in quarantine being careful who and what he is exposed to, grandkids would have to stay away (little germ factories) and would have to have all his childhood immunizations re-done until slowly his immune system re-builds.

We will know more of course after the visit to Huntsman and we are struggling to stay optimistic, but know that positive attitude is very important in a fight like this. I wanted to get this done in time to ask for you all to include him in your fasting today, but didn't get it done. Anyway, we appreciate all your love and prayers on his behalf and know that Heavenly Father's Hand is in all things and He will not leave us alone in our trials. We will keep updating the blog so you will know what's happening, thanks for your love and concern.

Lannis