Day 365. A No Go

Marc's operation is a no go. The surgeon spent a great deal of time going through our CT scan and determined that his disease is so widespread as to be considered inoperable. He didn't believe that doing the surgery would benefit Marc at all. More than likely it would do more harm.

We are beyond disappointed. We came here with one objective in mind and that is not going to happen. We are trying to wrap our minds around all of this. We are so sad, but remain confident that this doctor knows what he is doing and that God has all of this figured out.

All that being said, there is a glimmer of hope. As we chatted with the doctor about all of the tests that had been run, I mentioned a picture that the diagnosing surgeon took of his appendix during his laparoscopy last March. The doctor had noted that it looked healthy. One of the beliefs regarding Marc's type of cancer is that this type of tumor starts in the appendix. It should have looked diseased. Since it didn't, it led him to believe that it is a true adenocarcinoma with an unknown primary. In that case it may be a germ cell cancer that may respond to a different line of chemotherapy. He was quite excited about this one small piece of information.

So, you guessed it. Back to chemo. We are going to call tomorrow and schedule an appointment with Dr. Lopez and go over all of this with him. The hope is that we can start treatment next week. Dr. Sugarbaker said we will know within two to three treatments if we are making progress. IF the tumor responds to the treatment and IF it shrinks, he said he would gladly do Marc's surgery.

We are in a holding pattern again. We are devastated to a large extent that we didn't get the go ahead we were so desperate for today. But, we have a new direction -- one we would not have had without making the trip here. If it works it will ultimately be the best for Marc.

We would be grateful for your continued prayers and support. It's been exactly a year today since Marc first learned of his cancer. Tomorrow is day one of a new year for us. We pray that it will yield the life saving solution that we so desperately need.

With love and gratitude....