We went to UAB today and met with Dr. Arnoletti and Dr. Davies. Last week's biopsy showed that the mass is a very rare form of cancer and is called an adreno cortical carcinoma. There is little research to support the use of chemotherapy on this type of tumor and the only real option is surgery. The date for the surgery has been scheduled for Thursday, August 13th. The plan is to make an incision under the right rib cage and see if the tumor has spread to other areas. If it hasn't spread, they will remove the right adrenal gland and probably the right kidney. It doesn't appear to be affecting the liver or other organs. Also they will do a bypass surgery on Carrie to remove the mass from the inferior vena cava. If they have to repair the vena cava they will have to put Carrie in a form of cardiac arrest where there drop the body temperature low enough to stop the heart so that they can repair the vein. She also had EKG done today that showed part of the mass in one of the chambers of the heart. The surgeons feel that the surgery will be a success as long as the cancer hasn't spread. If it has spread, they don't know yet what type of treatment will do. The surgery will last 5-7 hours. (8-10 worst case scenario). 2-3 days in ICU after the surgery and 7-10 days in the hospital after the surgery. We are handling this alright, but please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. From our standpoint we knew the surgery would be big but now it is huge.
This will probably be the last post before the surgery but on the day of I will be updating the blog as the day progresses.
Jason
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Possible Dates
Carrie talked to her doctor this afternoon and as of right now, we will go back to UAB on Tuesday July 28th for a consult about the surgery. He also said that the surgery could possibly be done the dates of the 6th and 10th of August. These dates are not set in stone yet but we are hoping that the surgery will be between now and then. We are still waiting on the results of yesterday's biopsy and I will make a post when we have them.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Carrie's Biopsy
Short one today.
Carrie had a second biopsy done today. It was pretty much a heart cath. They went in through her groin and up a vein to her heart. We should know hear the results in couple of days (More waiting..imagine that). The procedure today went well took about an hour to do. Her leg is pretty sore and they told her to stay off of it for at least 24 hours.
Jason
Carrie had a second biopsy done today. It was pretty much a heart cath. They went in through her groin and up a vein to her heart. We should know hear the results in couple of days (More waiting..imagine that). The procedure today went well took about an hour to do. Her leg is pretty sore and they told her to stay off of it for at least 24 hours.
Jason
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Bringing everyone up to date on Carrie
Several people have asked to be kept up to date on Carrie's status and there are enough people that we have left some out. So being an IT guy, what better way to keep everyone in the loop, than use a blog.
For those that don't know, my wife Carrie started having pains in her abdomen on June 28th. We didn't think anything about it, so we let it go till Monday when it got worse. Carrie went to Auburn Urgent Care Monday night and she was told that it was acid reflux. They prescribed some medicine for that and that didn't help matters. On Tuesday, a co-worker of hers told her to go see Dr. Tonya Bradley here in Auburn. Carrie got an appointment on Wednesday the 1st of July and Dr. Bradley sent Carrie to East Alabama Medical Center (EAMC) for an ultrasound where they found the mass and did a CT Scan to confirm.
A biopsy was scheduled for the next day at EAMC. With the 4th of July holiday we had to wait till Monday to get the results of the biopsy. The results came back negative for cancer and a consult for surgery to remove the mass was scheduled for Tuesday.
We met with Dr. Clay Harper here in Auburn on Tuesday, July 7th and he showed us the CT Scan images and told us that the mass was growing next to her Vena Cava vein. Due to this he did not want to perform the surgery, because if there were any complications during surgery, he wouldn't be able to do anything for her. So he gave us three options, UAB in Birmingham, Emory in Atlanta, or Vanderbilt in Nashville. We decided to go with UAB and I hope that this is the closest I come to having any connection to the University of Alabama.
Dr. Harper referred us to Dr. Pablo Arnoletti, an Oncology surgeon at UAB. We met with him this past week on Tuesday and he wanted to do all of the test again so we had another CT Scan done on Tuesday. He called Carrie on Wednesday and said that he didn't see any other masses and that this mass is growing into the Vena Cava and is causing a clot that goes to Carrie's heart. We are scheduled to do another biopsy this Tuesday at UAB.
We know that surgery is going to happen but we haven't discussed it or scheduled anything with any doctors yet. The only thing as far as surgery goes that we know, is that Dr. Arnoletti and a cardiac surgeon will be doing the surgery. With the mass in the vein, we are looking at a major surgery that is nothing less than bypass surgery.
Carrie and I are handling this okay. The worst thing that we are having to deal with is the waiting for results. We were hoping to have this thing removed two weeks ago and as of right now we don't know when it will be removed. Other than taking trips to UAB, we were told to go on with life as normal as possible. Carrie is not in any real pain. She feels bloated all of the time and only eats about half of what she usually eats.
Thank you to everyone that has been thinking and praying for us. We greatly appreciate it and we can see the prayers working. The three doctors that we have seen so far have been excellent and have left no doubt that we are in good hands when we have dealt with them.
I will keep updating this blog as we have updates. I hope that there are only a couple of more updates and none as long as this one.
As a side note, the 21st of July is our anniversary which we will spend at UAB. Carrie and I are 2 for 2 on not so normal anniversaries. Last year for our 1st one, the AC went out and we had a HOT (temperature) anniversary and now this one this year. So our goal for next year is to stay home and cool.
Jason
For those that don't know, my wife Carrie started having pains in her abdomen on June 28th. We didn't think anything about it, so we let it go till Monday when it got worse. Carrie went to Auburn Urgent Care Monday night and she was told that it was acid reflux. They prescribed some medicine for that and that didn't help matters. On Tuesday, a co-worker of hers told her to go see Dr. Tonya Bradley here in Auburn. Carrie got an appointment on Wednesday the 1st of July and Dr. Bradley sent Carrie to East Alabama Medical Center (EAMC) for an ultrasound where they found the mass and did a CT Scan to confirm.
A biopsy was scheduled for the next day at EAMC. With the 4th of July holiday we had to wait till Monday to get the results of the biopsy. The results came back negative for cancer and a consult for surgery to remove the mass was scheduled for Tuesday.
We met with Dr. Clay Harper here in Auburn on Tuesday, July 7th and he showed us the CT Scan images and told us that the mass was growing next to her Vena Cava vein. Due to this he did not want to perform the surgery, because if there were any complications during surgery, he wouldn't be able to do anything for her. So he gave us three options, UAB in Birmingham, Emory in Atlanta, or Vanderbilt in Nashville. We decided to go with UAB and I hope that this is the closest I come to having any connection to the University of Alabama.
Dr. Harper referred us to Dr. Pablo Arnoletti, an Oncology surgeon at UAB. We met with him this past week on Tuesday and he wanted to do all of the test again so we had another CT Scan done on Tuesday. He called Carrie on Wednesday and said that he didn't see any other masses and that this mass is growing into the Vena Cava and is causing a clot that goes to Carrie's heart. We are scheduled to do another biopsy this Tuesday at UAB.
We know that surgery is going to happen but we haven't discussed it or scheduled anything with any doctors yet. The only thing as far as surgery goes that we know, is that Dr. Arnoletti and a cardiac surgeon will be doing the surgery. With the mass in the vein, we are looking at a major surgery that is nothing less than bypass surgery.
Carrie and I are handling this okay. The worst thing that we are having to deal with is the waiting for results. We were hoping to have this thing removed two weeks ago and as of right now we don't know when it will be removed. Other than taking trips to UAB, we were told to go on with life as normal as possible. Carrie is not in any real pain. She feels bloated all of the time and only eats about half of what she usually eats.
Thank you to everyone that has been thinking and praying for us. We greatly appreciate it and we can see the prayers working. The three doctors that we have seen so far have been excellent and have left no doubt that we are in good hands when we have dealt with them.
I will keep updating this blog as we have updates. I hope that there are only a couple of more updates and none as long as this one.
As a side note, the 21st of July is our anniversary which we will spend at UAB. Carrie and I are 2 for 2 on not so normal anniversaries. Last year for our 1st one, the AC went out and we had a HOT (temperature) anniversary and now this one this year. So our goal for next year is to stay home and cool.
Jason
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