Updates Beget Updates
As seems to be the case, anytime I send out a “Sarah update” to the fanbase, I subsequently have “need” to send out a new one. Occasionally not even relating to how much Mizzou rules or ku sucks (although both are implied). Thus and such, is this.
Sarah & I went to New Orleans earlier this week to meet again with that group (http://www.ochsner.org/NETS). This time we spoke with Dr. Eugene Woltering, and then with Dr. J. Philip Boudreaux. Woltering is Chief-Section of Surgical Endocrinology while Boudreaux is Professor of Neuroendocrine Surgery at their facility, which is affiliated with LSU (Geaux Tigers, but not you purple Tigers). They are affectionately known as “the fat man” and “Phillipé” respectively by Woltering, in his unusual, casual, Louisiana-redneck-sailor, random yelling out at nurses, speaking style. If there are physicians in the US that see more of carcinoid (or NETS as they now try to call them) than this group we are not aware of them. (In fact, Woltering’s 93-year old mother is a patient of his.)
Their recommendation was that Sarah undergo surgery. “How ‘bout next Thursday?” was a question. Not because of any urgency, just because they do a version of this surgery every Thursday and happened to have next Thursday open. While not going that full-steam ahead, Sarah does have surgery scheduled for Thursday, June 26, in New Orleans. We’ll likely be there a few days beforehand for testing, then will be there 7-10 days post-surgery for recovery.
The plan for the surgery is to remove Sarah’s gall bladder (because her drug causes gallstones (see my gall bladder scars from 2006)), remove as many of the spots in her liver as they can, use radio-frequency ablation (RFA) on any spots in her liver that are below the surface, remove any questionable lymph nodes, and then snoop around like crazy to find and remove any additional spots of tumor. They indicate that 50% of the time they find disease beyond where they’re expecting it based on pre-surgery scans, so that is a possibility which might modify that plan on the fly.
Beyond removing all the bad, they will then test that tissue for reaction to chemotherapy and other (anti-angiogenesis) drugs. This is important to both find out what does and doesn’t work, so any treatment decisions in the next 20 years are more informed. After those 20-years, we’ll assume they’ve found the cure and we’re done with these lengthy updates.
Several have asked me some version of “so is this good news?” with my honest answer of I have no idea. It’s certainly not bad news, just a decision we’re making with the treatment. The surgery is a big one, obviously, which comes with some risks and nervousness. Two weeks away from home for this kind of sucks. Doing it someplace that it’s a typical Thursday seems like a good plan though. Sarah remarked how nice it was to not have to explain Carcinoid, even to the receptionist at the facility, which is an extremely rare experience for her/us no matter where we’ve been. Every bit of everything we’ve read or experts we’ve heard or spoken with over the years have indicated that surgery is the preferred treatment, when possible. While she’s progressed very well, there’s always a chance that it kick starts. “God doesn’t let cancer sit still forever or the government quit sending tax bills,” was Woltering’s phrasing. So, surgery is the plan. Plus, since it’s June, that allows plenty of time for recovery before Adelaide starts kindergarten in the fall (and, ahem, football season).
Speaking of Mizzou ruling, Tiger baseball team won their first game of the NCAA tourney today. Think they play Miami tomorrow sometime on ESPNU. The JLB Pre-Season football ranking came out earlier this year, with the Tigers coming in at a clear Pre-Season #1. See the complete ranking here . Approximately 4,000 of us are planning a trip to Austin in October to watch the Tigers beat Bevo. Hooray football. And on a side note, screw ku.
p.s. 9 years ago (in about 7 hours) many of you were stumbling up the big hill at Les Bourgeois after a night of local wine drinking and Bistro revelry in celebration of the just exchanged Becking nuptials. A couple of you were injured during that challenging walk — you know who you are. A few of you were even lucky enough to continue the party with us in Brown’s hotel/conference room until the wee hours of the night. A couple more of you were lucky enough to have us drive you home around 3 a.m., Sarah still in her wedding gown, me still in my tux, since we had neither brought a change of clothes nor packed for the honeymoon, for which we departed at 6:00 a.m. The people sitting around me on that (bumpy) plane ride the next morning will never forgive you.