School Fundraiser

Okay, this has nothing to do with Troy's progress, but Derek is doing his first preschool fundraiser. If you have any interest in Tupperware, here is the link. You can pay with check, cash, or credit card. They can ship direct to you for a charge of $5.90. Just email me if you have any questions. I have a feeling we won't really have a chance to go door-to-door selling this, so just let us know if you are interested in purchasing anything. Thanks!! Terry & Derek

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33693&l=e4a92&id=630303146

Angels

We received news the other day that the Mayo Clinic is in agreement with our doctor's findings. Troy will begin his chemo treatment this Thursday. He hates his feeding tube. He obviously doesn't have to use it at this point, but just having the tube out of his belly is driving him crazy. Donna is here now. She has been here since Tuesday. Some of the pressure with the kids has been alleviated. Derek has been having 4 year old moments here and there which contributes to my 40 year old moments and Ryan seems to cry when Derek is upset, so at times I feel like I will have a mental breakdown or anxiety attack, but so far I haven't completely lost it. Troy is just trying to stay even keeled and is doing a pretty good job of it. One doctor wants him to eat 2000-2300 calories per day and the other doctor doesn't want him to stuff himself for the next couple of weeks, so we have to deal with that conflict of wanting to fatten Troy up and at the same time not wanting him to be sick from his surgery. We live and breathe questions about his cancer and wonder if we are making the right decisions (probably me much more than Troy). I guess this is all supposed to be "normal". Anyway, everyone is sleeping, but all I do is worry but try and stay positive. At least Troy is getting rest like he should and that makes me happy. We are actually meeting with a couple (Hal & Marcy Mendel) today who have been through this same type of cancer over the past year or so. It's a long story how me met, but it was completely by accident. God just throws you angels sometimes.

PEG tube installed

Troy had his feeding tube installed this afternoon. He is sore but getting around pretty good. He is miserable because he's starving and his diet is limited to broth, jello, and juice. The MRI results have only confirmed what we already knew from the PET scan. Dr. Allen ordered the MRI just so it can be a guide for her to use in placing the radiation to the affected areas. We have a follow up appointment with the gastroenterologist on Friday.

P.S. Troy's star is very lonely. It looks like I am the only one that donated and put a message out on it. Remember, it's only a $1 minimum donation - see 2 postings back for the link to it. Thanks!

Heading to the Gastroenterologist

We will be going to Dr. Neal Osborn tomorrow for Troy's consultation for his feeding tube. His surgery will more than likely be on Wednesday. They were going to start Troy's chemo on Wednesday, but due to the conflict with the feeding tube, they are going to start him next week instead. This will be good because it will give him time to recover from his surgery. This is the third surgery (if you haven't been following along) in less than a month. Troy's hanging tough though. We started out the weekend kind of sluggish, but Troy talked to the radiation oncologist, Dr. Laura Allen, Saturday morning and she gave us a little more confidence in Troy's prognosis. She basically said that she believes that Troy was misdiagnosed from the beginning by the pathologist and they are pretty confident that they have a handle on what they are dealing with, and they have sent the slides and his information to the round table at the Mayo clinic just so they can all agree on their findings. Anyway, I don't think we will ever feel "good" about any news until they say that Troy is cured. Every time we receive good news, we still know that the battle is not over. However, we are in the fight, and will continue until we win.

SU2C

If you don't already know there is a 1 hour commercial free show on tomorrow night on all 3 networks at 8:00 called Stand Up To Cancer. A lot of people have asked us that if there is anything they can do, to let them know. I actually added a star to the constellation at the show's website in Troy's name (go to http://su2c.standup2cancer.org/constellation). You can search the constellation for his name (I did it under Troy and not Angelo) and make a donation as little as $1 or more if you want. You can then place any comments that you want under Troy's star. You can also launch a star for someone else who you know that has been diagnosed with cancer. We have plenty of food that has been organized for us. We have a great support network that has been formed. What we don't have is a cure for this horrible disease. Keep praying for us and give whatever you can to the doctors and scientists at SU2C so they can help develop cures for all different types of cancers that are out there. This is for the hope that none of you ever has to deal with this in your family. Please pass along the link to anyone you can think of. We have the MRI appointment today at 1:00. There won't be anything to report until probably tomorrow or Monday regarding the results.

Great News

We were at the doctor's office all morning. The great news is that the PET scan showed no sign of cancer anywhere else in Troy's body. As you can imagine we were overjoyed. The oncologist has officially renamed Troy's cancer as orapharyngeal. He said this is good news as well due to the prognosis being better. They are now sending his slides to the Mayo Clinic to review amongst other doctors/pathologists. Troy should be starting his first dose of chemo next week (Wednesday) unless they come up with something different between now and then. Fortunately, Donna (Troy's mom) will be coming on Tuesday.

Pathologist slides

The only news to report today is that we heard from Jacqui, the lady who is collecting our doctor reports and any other medical data to send to eCleveland Clinic for a free (pd for by GE) online 2nd opinion. She said that the pathologist, Dr. John Cochran ("If the tumor doesn't fit, you must acquit" - Troy will think I am the biggest dork for typing this!), called her personally to ask her to send the slides of Troy's tumor results back to him as soon as possible. We couldn't figure out what all this was about so we put a call into the ENT surgeon, Dr. Earnest Riley, and the oncologist's nurse, Karen, called us before we got a call back from Dr. Riley. She said the reason for the urgency with getting the slides back was because they were already working on a second opinion from Emory University and they wanted the slides ASAP so they could get Troy going with the best course of treatment. We like the fact that the doctors are collaborating amongst each other to give the best care to Troy. I guess we will know more tomorrow when we meet with the oncologist, Dr. Bruce Goldsweig.