The Six Hundred Dollar Man

Paul had an appointment with Dr. Hancock this morning. As we suspected, from the increased pain he's felt over the past month, the tumor in his leg has grown from about 3 cm long to over 9 cm. Dr. Hancock outlined several options for treatment:

1) Do nothing, but run the risk of Paul suffering a catastrophic fracture in his femur - not good.

2) Remove the diseased portion of the bone, replacing it with some combination of donor bone/metal rod/prosthetic bone/screws.

3) Interleukin - a treatment that utilizes the body's own defenses to attack the cancer - this may not be effective on tumors in the bone.

4) More of the same chemotherapy that Paul had earlier in the year - yuck!

Dr. Hancock is working on getting Paul an appointment with Dr. Randall, a Sarcoma Surgeon at Huntsman Cancer Institute. He is among the best in the country. We'll let you know what we learn from the consultation.

Update: Paul and I will be going to Huntsman on Wednesday. We will meet with Dr. Kevin Jones, who is a partner of Dr. Lor Randall's.

We have a PET/CT scan on the 7th of October. This should give us a clear picture of how well the Temodar is working at keeping the cancer from spreading to other areas of Paul's body. We know it isn't very effective against cancer inside of his bones.

After we finished talking with Dr. Hancock, Paul had a Zometa infusion. One of the nurses asked how things were going and he told her what we had learned. Paul commented that the doctors would probably take out the cancerous bone and replace it with a "bionic leg." He said, "I'll be the Six Hundred Dollar Man." I love that he is able to keep a sense of humor in spite of the pain and suffering he has endured. He is the strongest person I know.

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Yesterday in church Paul was released as Young Men's President and I was released as Scout committee chair and Advancement chair. Paul is now a Ward Missionary and I am responsible for the Ward Bulletin each week, and am the Ward Historian as well. I also resigned my job as office manager. The combination of family, school, church and work was becoming more than I wanted to juggle. So the last thing on was the first thing off.

Parker has been invited to become a member of the National Honor Society. We are very proud of him. He has worked hard in school and is reaping the dividends. He will be working for a neighbor during Spud Harvest, so no motorcycle rides for him during the break. I guess it will just be Paul and the three younger boys, since I will be in school the whole time. I suppose I could play hooky...stay tuned.

Hayden earned his Star rank in Scouts. He's going to the merit badge Pow Wow at BYU-I in November, bringing him one merit badge closer to Eagle. Cameron earned his Bear rank in Cub Scouts and he and Jacob have been busy practicing for the Primary program.