Plan of Attack

We saw Byron's surgeon, Dr. Canter, today, and we are feeling optimistic. He showed us CT scans from December and compared them to CT scans done in October. You could see that the mass is larger, but you could also see less bright spots on the December scan. Apparently the brighter spots indicate more active tumor growth, so this is a good thing. Dr. Canter said this supports Dr. Christiansen's idea that parts of the tumor are probably responding to the chemo and dying. That makes surgery a better option. The cancer is less likely to just come back somewhere else after surgery if live cells are not left in Byron's body. Also, if they do find that the tumor is largely necrotic, that tells us chemo was working and makes post-surgery chemo more hopeful.
Byron is scheduled to go to surgery at the end of this month. It will be a long surgery and not an easy one, but the doctor seems confident. We expect Byron to be in the hospital for a week or so. Once he's home recovery will take 6 - 8 weeks, and then Byron will probably have to undergo a couple more chemo cycles after that. We are nowhere near the end of this journey, but we are feeling optimistic and hopeful.
Thanks for all the love and concern you have all shown us. We treasure our family and friends and know we are very blessed to have you all on our team.
We had a great weekend and saw lots of great people out and about this Second Saturday. We loved the art at Body Tribe - nice to see the Roto-Zip working for Mark Fox! We also loved Nicole Fox's new venture into painting large scale. Thanks to Deb, Omar, Liz, and Dugan, who made the trek into midtown. Byron loved the opportunity to play with Victor and Tom at the Weatherstone, and it sounded great. Sunday's Java Lounge jam was fabulous as well.


Victor, Tom, and Byron at the Weatherstone Saturday night