We Are Winning The War On Cancer

Pablo's so excited to have food in his mouth he wants you ALL to see it.

While we were eating dinner in the conference room-cum-mess hall, Dr Stein came to see us. He had a message regarding the pathology of the right kidney—the last bit of the organ that he removed in the operation last week. The message was great, great news: the tumor did in fact have tumor cells in it.

As I said in a post last week, we would prefer that Pablo NO cancer in his body, ever. But since we are engaged in a war with an invisible opponent (sorry, had to go there), we feel vindicated that there was cancer left in that kidney and that we were determined to get the kidney out of his body. Jo Ann was especially determined. I followed her lead (something I am learning to do more and more). Dr Mascarenhas also strongly urged us to remove the small bit of right kidney after he returned from a conference where he reviewed Pablo's case with two of the main Wilms' Tumor authorities in the U.S.

The bottom line is, a large part of cancer treatment is a guessing game. So, like sinking an opponent's vessel in Battle Ship, knowing that our hunch was correct, and that we averted danger, is, like f**kin' great!!!!! There's another layer of great news. The two lymph nodes that were removed in separate surgeries are totally clear of cancer. This is a fantastic indicator that the cancer had not yet spread anywhere else in Pablo's body. Excuse my super un-technical description of all this. If I get any of this wrong, I will correct the text immediately. As I understand it, the lymph nodes are typically the first organs to carry tumor after the primary originating organ. No matter what, this is all GREAT news!

Plus, Pablo is up and at 'em today. He's been smiling, laughing, cracking jokes with Polly, playing with Grady, telling stories. He hasn't been as shy and withdrawn. He's walked all over the shop with Jo Ann, then Polly.

And, to celebrate this amazing day, he and I are about to dig into some Pinkberry.

We have the official word from Dr M: chemo will resume tomorrow. More on that later.

Goodnight.