CAT Scan Results Are In!

The chemo is working and we are ON for surgery next week! We had the smoothest time ever at the hospital this morning. Pablo even chose to down his contrast drink in the garden that sits outside the hospital. Our hospital time felt shorter with a blast of fresh air in the middle.

Pablo cried as the CT machine pulled him in and out of its donut. The good news is the scan itself was over so fast that we thought it was a test run.

When we got home, there was a message from Dr. Mascarenhas waiting for us. Jo Ann ran downstairs with the phone on SPEAKER, looking elated and stunned that he'd called so quickly. We sort of expected to be waiting for his call all day. This is a great lesson in what to do with expectations for sure.

We called him back immediately, and he gave us his read on the scans–all of which will me reviewed next week by the surgeon, Dr. Stein, as the two of them formulate the exact plan for Pablo's procedure on Wednesday. Keep in mind that any of this could change as Dr. M. re-reviews, and certainly when Dr. Stein joins the mix (he is on vacation this week).

All the words below are direct quotes from Dr. M (except the parenthetical notes, which are my clarifications).

OK, here goes:

LEFT KIDNEY: not changed, exact same size (this is the side with the smaller tumor(s).

RIGHT KIDNEY: Looks like the chemo is having an effect. It's 5% larger, so essentially about the same size.

LUNGS are clean

NO worrisome lymph nodes or anything else

PROBABLE SURGERY STRATEGY:

• Deal with RIGHT side first. A bit of this kidney is still functional. The contrast made it look like part of the kidney is still working very well (THIS IS GREAT NEWS!!!!)

• LEFT KIDNEY: Leave it alone for now. Dr. Stein will determine pathology in next week's surgery. We will scan it again in six more weeks.

CHEMO REGIMEN MOVING FORWARD:

• Will have to add a third drug to the chemo mix (We will let you know what this one is called)

• Scan again in six weeks

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This is me talking again. Dr. M. has left the blog for now.

Jo Ann and I feel that this is great news! Mostly because there's no BAD news, and also because some of the right kidney appears to be healthy and operational. We will be grateful for ANY portion of that kidney to be in working order, and to stay in his little body.

It's true that a person can live a perfectly fine life with a single kidney. BUT, if there is a reappearance of Wilms' Tumor on one or both of his kidneys in the future, having two kidneys gives the doctors more to work with. The further we can stay from dialysis or a kidney transplant, the better, is how we look at it.

That is THE news for the week. We are going to sign off and get some rest, and catch up on work and a TON of family / foundation / household stuff. Our dishwasher is on the blink, and Jo Ann has not had a minute to go to the joint in Burbank to buy a new one. And they won't do it over the phone. So, that's one of the things we're going to do when Polly gets here at 2 p.m.

I am trying to talk Jo Ann into taking 90 minutes tonight to go to a movie. Just to drink Coke, eat popcorn, and zone out in the dark. I'd watch a blank screen at this point. We'll see how it goes.

Will check back later. SPREAD THE GOOD WORD!