It has been a very long time since I have blogged. Probably since Dani's surgery. It was actually a good thing, no news is good news. Shane and I had gone down to Hopkins in August and he had scans done and at that time there were no signs of tumor growth. Shane insisted that the scans were wrong because he was feeling tumors in his neck, but you can't argue with what's not there. Anyway, we were told to come back in 6 months and go through everything again. During the first 3 months Shane was feeling great. He was going to the gym, he lost 20 lbs, really in a good place. These last few months however, Shane was feeling a bit more fatigued and had been complaining of more soreness in his left shoulder and he could tell that the tumors in his neck were growing. His stomach has also been not so good, which is a side effect of the disease.
As the appointment got closer we were getting more and more anxious. We both had a feeling that we weren't going to be hearing anything good. We went down last Tuesday. Shane went through all of the blood work and scans that are necessary for the clinical drug trial. At this time, the oncologist now has a say as to who gets into the trial or not. So Shane will be starting the clinical drug trial we have been waiting to go on for the last 2 years. This is great news. We are finally going to be doing something.
Here is the bad news, the results from Shane's scans show a tremendous amount of growth. There is regrowth in his neck, growth in his mediastinum, armpits, a tumor adjacent to his aorta and now it has metastasized to his liver. They also noticed a spot on his femur bone, which may or may not be benign. This news has been a huge shock to us. I feel like we are learning he has cancer all over again.
This is a lot to take in, we are trying to absorb all of this information and how this is going to effect our family. We now have to hope that when Shane starts this drug trial in 2 - 4 weeks, that he does get the drug and not the placebo. However, with any drug protocol there are side effects that we must be vigilant about.
The last 5 days have been very emotional for us. I know the upcoming weeks and months are not going to be easy either, but we are a strong and whatever comes our way we will fight it together! We are so lucky to have such amazing family and friends, You have been a tremendous source of strength to us and we thank you. FMC!!!!
