Dr. Pal visit

We finally had an appointment with Dr. Pal today and got a lot of questions answered.

Octreotide scan/results/therapy: The octreotide scan is what we thought it was. It's purpose was to see if there were octreocytes present in the tumors to see if the octreotide therapy would be an option. They found octreocytes in the bone lesions (spine, rib, hip) but not in the pancreas/liver lesions. Dr. Pal had no good answer to why one place and not the other except that the cell make up is different in the different tissues. Since they are present, Gavin is going to go ahead and receive the therapy. Today and tomorrow he gets test injections to make sure his body is receptive to the drug and that there aren't any adverse side effects (rash, nausea). All seemed to go well today so I'm sure he will be able to have the longer acting injection on Wednesday. He will get 1 injection every 32 days. After the 2nd injection, Dr. Pal wants to do a repeat CT/PET scan to see if the therapy is working to either stabilize growth or shrink tumors. There should be no adverse side effects from this therapy like there is with chemo.

I have mentioned that Gavin has been having pain in his right side and after the ER visit in June/July it was diagnosed as a pleurisy. Dr. Pal has reviewed the x-rays and multitude of scans over and over and he is not convinced that it is a pleurisy. He is thinking, especially since reviewing the results of the octreotide scan, that the pain could be related to the increase in activity in his rib lesion. It totally makes sense. The pain is definitely more of a muscular/skeletal pain and not an internal, take a deep breath pain. Hopefully we can talk to pain doc and figure out a way to lesson the pain there though because at times it is worse then the abdominal pain.

Gavin's throat is feeling much better. His mouth is still pretty sore but that is to be expected. We go next Monday to see Dr. Sharma for a post-op visit.

Drew just got his schedule and many of you will find this amusing. Drew had major problems with Spanish 2 and just eeked out a passing grade. Needless to say, he decided 2 years of a foreign language was enough and did not sign-up for Spanish 3. So today he opens his schedule and what is the first class he sees???? Honors Spanish 3! Not just regular Spanish 3, but HONORS! Giggles and much mirth poured forth from deep down in our bellies. Working right now to get that changed.

Thanks Jen for your "slacker" meal...the lasagna was yummy! It will probably be dinner again tonight.

Love and Blessings to all!
Maria