We saw our oncologist at Cedars today and discussed the options of surgery of the pancreas and radiation of the chest. After looking at all the reports, he looked up and said "Here's what I think you should do ... Go live your life, work, surf." Since the radiation is not likely to offer much benefit and has the potential of causing great harm, he wants us to skip it. He also does not believe the surgery on the pancreas is the best choice right now. 

His plan is to have Scott continue the monthly Sandostatin injections, which help to keep these types of tumors from growing. To monitor tumor growth Scott will have a CT scan of the chest and an MRI of his abdomen every three months. He will also have an MRI of the brain in the next couple of weeks to rule out any pituitary tumors. 

If the tumors grow, then the oncologist would like for Scott to get a targeted radiation treatment only available in Europe and Houston, Texas. This treatment is only offered through clinical trials in the U.S. and is quite costly, so it is our hope that Scott can do well on the Sandostatin. When the treatment wins FDA approval it will be covered by insurance. That's a bridge to cross in the future. 

We are so happy to have a break from treatments and surgeries. Scott is enjoying being back at work, surfing, gardening and chasing after the little boy.

We had a consultation with a surgeon yesterday. Scott has two small tumors in the pancreas. The surgeon thinks he can remove both of them by removing about 3/4 of Scott's pancreas. The tumors are not in the head of the pancreas, which is a more difficult surgery. Since the pancreas is responsible for insulin production, the surgeon said there would be a chance that Scott would become diabetic. But he said there was an 80 percent chance that what is left of the pancreas would do the job of insulin production. But he also said there's a very high probability that another tumor would grow in what's left of the pancreas. Another difficult decision. We are waiting to talk to the oncologist at Cedars next Wednesday before deciding what to do.

This morning Scott had an internal ultrasound of his pancreas that revealed more about the newest tumor. It's small (1.5 cm x 1 cm) and right in the middle of the pancreas. The gastrointestinal doctor who did the procedure seems to think it's in a good location for surgery. We will see the surgeon Thursday to find out more.

Last week we met with the radiation oncologist. We discussed the possibility of radiating what's left of the tumor in Scott's chest. This will be a difficult decision as it is not expected to be curative and the risks are pretty great. The surgery was risky, but not doing the surgery was even riskier. So it was an easy decision. To have any benefit, the doses of radiation would have to be very high. And doing radiation so close to the heart can lead to really undesirable consequences such as heart attack or heart failure. So we have a big decision to make.

Before any plans are put in place regarding surgery or radiation we will see the Cedars Sinai oncologist. We have an appointment next week.

Since it's Lent, we have embraced an attitude of "giving up" worry. While it's not terribly easy to do this, we're also tired of living life under a constant threat of cancer and of what is to come. We're moving on with our lives and dealing with the cancer as we must. We're making plans again and looking forward to some upcoming weekend trips out of town and a spring break visit from Scott's sister and our nephew. We're also enjoying the warm, beautiful days of late. Well, Scott is enjoying the beautiful days. I'm mostly just sweating a lot while I sledgehammer the back patio. Scott has decided that now is a good time to take out the old concrete. He tried sledgehammering it himself (not a good idea after getting his chest opened up), then declared it seemed more like "women's work" and handed the heavy instrument to me. It turns out that hitting concrete over and over is pretty therapeutic. It sure is good to be alive!