Six week scans

Turns out Alex's admission last weekend was a blessing in disguise. It's a mess getting MRI's scheduled on little ones since they have to have anesthesia. Not sure if someone dropped the ball or if it was just a five week lag on getting him in, but the oncologist is checking into it. His outpatient MRI wasn't scheduled until April 12-completely unacceptable. But since we just happened to be in the hospital (and not ready for discharge until Monday morning), Alex had his MRI done last Monday.

We're going to give Alex another 6 weeks of chemo. Everyone sat down and the tumor on the left definitely has shrank enough to meet the “partial response” definition. The one on the right did not-it shrank but not 30%. Dr. Meyer and Dr. Kropp both consulted colleagues who had dealt with bilateral Wilm's and everyone agrees. They took into account that most of the time kiddos with WAGR syndrome have a favorable histology present in the tumors but may have a fibrous skeleton keeping it from “melting away”.

If they did a biopsy at this point, it would be an additional open surgery, would “upstage” the tumor in terms of radiation treatment (not good) and they all agree to play the odds and go with six more weeks of chemo as recommended in the protocol. We’ll start back tomorrow.

We took advantage of the chemo-free, healthy immune system. Alex stayed with Auntie Ang, Uncle Shawn and the boys and Robert and I had an evening to ourselves. It was nice. We went and had dinner, went to Bricktown and rode in a horse-drawn carriage, had dessert at the Melting Pot and then spent a couple of hours at The Blue Door listening to music. Today we met a friend (a fellow October Mom and her babe) for the Medival Faire in Norman. Alex slept most of the time in his stroller (his usual MO). 

I'll try to keep this updated better. In the meantime, I tend to post short and sweet announcements on the Facebook page.