Mar 2, 2010

Family and Friends,




I know it has been a while since I last update you. I have been meaning to do so lately, but was waiting until I had more answers, but now I need to ask for your continued prayers. As some of you know I am planning on being a part of a clinical trial for a medication called Sutent, which is in its second phase of testing at Washington Hospital Center and has had some pretty good results. There are a set of scans/tests that must be run first to see if I am eligible, and secondly as a baseline to compare to future studies once I am on the medication. The first was a PET/CT, something that I have about every 6 months anyway, to see if I even had tumors large enough to qualify for the study. When we got the results, it turned out there was indication of disease in my spine and chest region. This along with the fact that I have had continuing back pain lately caused my neurosurgeon to be concerned, and he asked for an MRI of my spine to compare to my pre surgical MRI from the fall. He wanted to compare them to see if these were new tumors, or ones that were missed during my previous surgery in October. My MRI was Monday morning, and my doctor called me this morning with the results. He says that there are a few spots in my spine that show re currant tumors, and there is one that seems to be starting to compress my spinal cord again. He feels that this could explain the symptoms (pain) I have been having in my back. Due to the results., he wants to operate, and soon. He has rearranged his schedule, and I will be having a back surgery on Monday, March 8th at 3pm. Josh and I will be meeting with him on Thursday to discuss it in more detail. He feels that he needs to operate, because if we were to put it off and just try the medication, there could be risk of my spinal cord being damaged by the tumor. I am hoping that after this surgery I can continue with the clinical trial, as both my endocrinologist and a close family friend who is an oncologist both are in favor of it. I know this is sudden, and I will say that I am scared, but I am glad that my doctors are being aggressive and proactive. I have said from that start that I am young, and in relatively good health other than the cancer, so I want to be as aggressive as possible to try and kick this thing for good. I ask that you keep Josh and I, and our family in your prayers through this continuing situation. I will try to keep you updated as much as I can.



Thanks for the continued prayers,



Hattie