Lots going on!

Here are the latest updates:

Gavin ended up with 2 octreotide scans. Why do you ask? We wondered that as well. Honestly, after the second scan, we concluded that the techs might have messed up. On Wed., they scanned Gavin from the neck down and on Thurs., they scanned him from the head down. Conclusion...they forgot to scan the head the first time! They are human, they make mistakes. I just feel bad that Gavin had to lie down on that hard table for 2 hours again. It is not a comfortable experience for him. A special thanks to Norma for sitting with me BOTH days. It made the waiting much more enjoyable.

We saw Dr. Chang, the pain specialist, on Friday. He changed Gavin's main pain med, his anti-inflammatory, and his quick acting med. Hopefully we will hit on a good combo of stuff. Gavin is also getting a nerve block (can't think of what it's called) in a few weeks. The hope is that this block will do a better job alleviating his pain and his other pain med dosages can be reduced. I'm being lazy so I'll have to give you the date of that later when my calendar is next to me!

We saw Dr. Sharma, the oral surgeon, today. He is happy with the way Gavin's mouth is healing. So happy that he is confident that he can go in and remove the dead bone surgically without harming any other tissue and cause the healing process to have to begin again. This will be an out-patient surgery at CMC Pineville sometime Wed., Thurs., or Fri. I will know specifics tomorrow. The reason for the out-patient is so the doc can put Gavin completely under so Gavin will be as comfortable as possible while he digs around his mouth. I cannot say enough how much we love this doc. His office staff is professional, kind, and considerate. We really feel that when he is with us, his full attention is on Gavin's care. If you ever need an oral surgeon, go to Dr. Sharma!

Lastly, we spoke with Dr. Pal, guru oncologist, today. It has been very strange to not have actual doc visits with him. We came close today by putting him on speaker phone. This is as much as I understand about the octreotide scan and I could be wrong. If you nurses out there know more or differently, feel free to correct and inform me! The scan does not show liver/pancreas lesions but does show bone lesions. The bone lesions Gavin had previously, in his rib/spine areas, are active again. This is not too shocking since he hasn't had chemo or zomeda (the bone therapy) for a few months now. What doc would like to do is start Gavin on an octreotide therapy. This would be one injection, every 4 weeks, for 8 weeks. So a total of 2 injections and then we would repeat scans. A special thanks to all of my math teachers for the ability to add, etc... Back to subject at hand, this therapy is a noncytotoxic therapy. What that means is that it will not supress his immune system so getting it will not inhibit his mouth from healing. Gavin will receive 2 test shots next Mon. and Tues. These are short acting shots to test his tolerance. If he is tolerant, on Wed. he will receive the long acting shot. Bonus...no side effects. If there are side effects, we will see them during the test shots and thus there will be no long acting shot.

Specific prayers: that the oral surgery will go well this week
that the new meds will help Gavin feel better
esp. ones for indigestion and pleurisy
that he will be tolerant of the new therapy injections
that the nerve block will be an effective way to manage
his pain and we can reduce other meds

One last thing...I am so very proud of all of my kids. Drew and Mackenzie sang a beautiful duet this past Sunday at church and Austin played a handbell arrangement with it. Why am I proud? Is it because they have the confidence to get up there and do it? Kinda. Is it because they enjoy sharing the love of Christ? Yes. Is it because they did all of it without beating each other? Most definitely!

As always, thanks for your love and prayers!

Maria