Here we go again...

So our one day visit to get a CT Scan and see the doctor has turned into a three day adventure. The scans only showed a small amount(1cm) of growth since her last scan. This growth has been causing Carrie some pain and discomfort for the last few weeks. The scan showed that one of the tumors is pressing on the tube that connects her kidney to her bladder on her right side. This could cause a blockage that could in turn cause kidney failure. Right now all of her tests show that her kidney is functioning fine. As a precaution they have decided to insert an urinary stint. This will relieve the pressure on the kidney. The procedure will be tomorrow(Thursday) morning at UAB at 10am. It will be an out patient procedure that shouldn't take longer than 30 minutes if everything goes well. Now on to Friday. They are going to start Carrie on another infusion chemo regimen of Taxol and carboplatin Friday morning. They are typically well tolerated but she will probably lose her hair once again. Silver lining I get to shave my head again :) Chemo treatment will be every Friday for the next 3 weeks. If she doesn't have any major side effects, treatment could change to one treatment every 3 weeks. Dr. DeShazo( our Oncologist) is contacting the radiologist to see if they can do radiation again to treat the pain that Carrie is having. For now she has been prescribed pain patches. She is scheduling an appointment to meet with Pallative Care for pain management. Even the idea of Acupuncture has been mentioned. There have been talks of surgery and we got that clarified today. Surgery is not an option as a form of treatment of the cancer. They did say that surgery is an option if all other pain treatment doesn't work but only as a last resort. As of right now, Carrie will meet with her doctor again next Friday (6/10) and hopefully the Pallative Care doctor. OH, major upside all of this will be done in Birmingham, not MD Anderson. I will update the blog tomorrow afternoon to let everyone how the procedure goes.