Pathology Report - Disappointing News....

Wednesday, August 15, 2012 - On Friday Dr. Wright called and said they got the pathology report back on Jake's leg.  The tumor didn't respond like they had hoped.  Only 30% of the tumor had died.  They were hoping for more like 90%.  That means that the chemo he has been receiving wasn't doing a good job of killing the cancer.  Because of this outcome everything changes from here.  

We had the option of adding two additional chemo medications to the three he was already receiving or stop with the chemo and implement two brand new chemo medications.  The two new chemo medications are Ifosfamide and Etoposide.  The Etoposide has a greater chance of giving him leukemia.  Dr. Wright didn't really know where to go from here.  There is a study being done right now on which is better for the patient but as of right now there are no reports on it.  She was going purely off of how Jake reacted to the chemo.  She thought where he always gets really sick that she was leaning toward the two new infusions.  She wanted us to think about it and on Monday when we were to come back we would talk to her.  She was also going to email a couple of her associates and see what they recommended.  We fasted on Sunday and I felt we should rely on the Dr.'s advise  and Aaron was inspired to add the two new chemo medications to Jake's map. 

We left early on Monday (August 13th) and went to see Dr. Scott, Jake's surgeon, and he removed some of the stitches for the leg. Then we were leaving to go to Primary Children's Medical Center and went to the car - it wouldn't start. Uggg!!!  Luckily Aaron had followed us down to SLC and was able to take Jake and I to Primary's.  When we got here it was 1:00 and Jake went to the Audiologist to have his hearing checked. Not much has changed with the hearing just some higher pitches lost, ironically those tones lost in the early twenty's anyway.  Then to the cardiologist to have his heart checked as these two new medications are very hard on the heart and kidneys.  Dr. Wright came in and spoke with us and she explained that she really wasn't sure what to do yet.  She told us that the survival rate is lower due to the outcome of the tumor on the leg.   She gave us some more options and Aaron and I spoke about it and after some time we thought it be in Jake's best interest to add the two additional medications to his current treatment.  Dr. Wright thought that to be best as well.  So here we are,  Jake is getting the Doxorubicin and Cisplatin right now and the in two weeks they will do Methotrexate and then the very next week it will be the two new therapy's.  It will add 10 more weeks to his therapy.  Right now he is very nauseous trying not to lose it.  He is laying very still trying to get through the infusions. Hopefully we will be on home on Friday.

As far as school Jake will not be able to register for school this trimester.  He will be doing some online schooling and hopefully he will be getting back the first of next year.