Check up in Houston

Courtney and Sue traveled yesterday to Houston for a follow up with the surgeon and to receive final pathology results from all of the biopsies they had taken from his tumor and the surrounding lymph nodes. While the preliminary results showed that the labs would be all clear, they did find some active microscopic cells in the vessels surrounding the liver. This just means that the chemo hasn't killed all of the active cancer cells yet, and Courtney must do more chemo before proceeding on with more surgery.

Courtney will complete three more months of chemo, but not before his body is given time to heal from the surgery. So, in the middle of June, chemo will begin but at a 25% reduction in the dose from before. They don't have the large tumor or bowel tumor to contend with anymore so they feel comfortable reducing the dose. After completion of the chemo regimen, he will take a "rest from chemo" for a few weeks to let his blood counts rise. He can then have surgery to remove the area of the bowel that is scarred from the previous cancer that is now gone. The doctor at MD Anderson suggested that they have the bowel surgery closer to home this time, since the bowel surgery was not as involved and complicated. He previously had seen a colorectal surgeon at Baylor, so they will go back to interview him to see what is recommendations are for surgery.

Courtney got his staples out, and is feeling good after surgery. We continue to be confident in his progress and how amazing he has done. While this is a minor setback, the fact that the large tumors are gone is amazing. It is so promising that the chemo he will be on will most likely be the one that killed all the tumors before.

I will keep you all posted on his progress. Thank you again for all your love and support!

Love,
Ashley