Making new battle plans...

We are reorganizing, making new plans of attack and moving in a new direction.

In the light of this new day, and it's beautiful today, I can say to you that I am ready to move ahead. Last week I don't know if I was always as upbeat.

My husbands PET/CT scan results showed an enlarged lymph node in the center (well a bit to the left) of his chest. Unexpected news following his double surgeries for lung cancer, and then followed by a winter and spring of awful Chemotherapy.

The lymph node seems to be in a very precarious spot. It's nestled in between the Pulmonary Artery, his heart and Aorta. So the prospect of getting someone to stick a needle in there to get a biopsy is very remote. They will not do it here in Hartford. We would like to know what "it" is before he endures Radiation to the chest daily for 6 weeks accompanied by Chemotherapy. But, if they can not get to it, to analyze the lymph node, there is no other option (except to do nothing -which is not really an option).

Tomorrow we will head into Boston to meet with a Dr. Sugarbaker, he is a Thoracic Surgeon with Dana-Farber at Brigham and Women's Hospital, we've heard that he is one of the best. We are hoping that he will attempt to get at this node and identify it as friend or foe.

We realize that this is a long shot because of the lymph nodes location, but we have to at least try to find someone to reach it. Later in October we will have our first meeting with the Oncology teams at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston to get opinions on what course of action would be best moving forward from here.

I am somewhat certain that Radiation and Chemo are on the top of that list. The consultation would provide us with options as to the style of radiation delivery and perhaps new options as to which medications they might use in combinations, that might give him an extra advantage. Dana-Farber is said to be on the cutting edge of cancer treatment and is only 90 minutes away. Having experienced great care in NYC this winter I know that it can make a difference. Now seemed like the best time to make that move into Boston.

I guess that you might think that I could be hiding my fear. I don't think so. I believe that this is just a wrinkle in the works. It can be straightened out with some careful thought and courage, along with guidance from this new team of specialists helping us make the best attack plans. This mutation in his system has to have a weakness and we'll just have to work at finding it. We're ready to do the work!