A Second Opinion

Matt and I are getting away for the weekend! We're looking forward to getting away for a few days that don't involve Matt lying pale and hooked up to wires in a hospital bed -- and my spending 14 hour days at his side, to head to my temporary home to sleep and back again the next day. Spending the weekend with former co-workers, who are also special friends, sounds SO much better!

Of course, this is a mini-vacation with a purpose. On Monday, February 28th we have an appointment at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. At the recommendation of Matt's oncologist, we will be meeting with three doctors to gain a second opinion on Matt's case.

Medical combined with a mini-vacation? I can handle that. :-)

A Better Case Scenario

The road we've been traveling has been varied. There was the impossible to miss sinkhole spanning the width of the road at the preliminary diagnosis of liver cancer, possibly originating in the pancreas. We were told Matt had 2 months to a year to live. It was a worst case scenario.

Lifted from the cavernous hole by our loving Savior, we continued our journey. The road turned into an oasis of hope when the prognosis changed to a rare slow-growing type of pancreatic cancer. Though it was Stage IV and had already metastasized to the liver, surgery offered the hope of a cure. It was a best case scenario.

The day of the surgery came, revealing that the cancer was more extensive than the scans had shown. The surgery was not a possibility. Was this a pothole ... or a sinkhole? We didn't know for sure. We continued on hoping for the best, not ready to accept another worst case scenario before it could be spelled out for us. It was the hopeful, yet unknown scenario.

Today we had an appointment with the oncologist to determine what we are really facing and what the current prognosis is. The doctor explained that because this is a slow-growing cancer, the prognosis is 3-5 years without surgery -- possibly even longer. Options included radiation & chemotherapy. However, due to Matt's current good health and the slow-growing nature of this particular cancer, the doctor's recommendation is to wait, have a three-month scan in March to determine how slow slow-growing is -- and make decisions from there. He said that though a second opinion is not essential, he would recommend it. We will be setting up a second-opinion appointment within a few weeks time at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. It's not a worst case scenario nor a best case scenario -- but it's definitely a better case scenario.