Surgery Update
SURGERY
Tomorrow's the big day for Ethen. We will go to the hospital early, and Ethen's surgery will begin around 7:00 am. The surgeon plans for the surgery to take 3 to 4 hours. He'll begin by going into Ethen's abdomen laparoscopically to try to dissect and extract the tumor without opening Ethen's abdomen. If things are not going well via laparoscope, then the surgeon will open Ethen to resect the tumor. This is the same surgeon who biopsied the tumor and placed Ethen's Hickman line earlier in the year, and he did an excellent job as far as we can tell (Ethen's Hickman line is still in, which, from nurses' anecdotes, is not the case for some young patients who rip them right out---though this could be attributable to Ethen's good behavior :)).
Please pray that the operation goes well. Pray the surgical team is alert and precise with their actions. Pray that Ethen's body is not overwhelmed by fluid or effects of anesthesia used during surgery. Pray that the surgeon can get most, or all of the remaining tumor (it's not as important for neuroblastoma tumors to be fully resected as some other tumors). Pray that he can recover quickly and fully after surgery so as to be ready for the next phases of treatment.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Once surgery is completed, Ethen will have completed phase 1 of 3 treatment phases. In two or three weeks Ethen will receive another scan to determine what, if anything, remains of the tumor. For phase 2, Ethen will receive stem cell transplant and radiation therapy to try to eliminate any trace of cancer in his body. He will be admitted sometime near the beginning of September for the stem cell transplant, which could take 30–40 days in the hospital. This is a long stay because Ethen will be administered a high dose of chemotherapy to try to destroy the cancer, but it will also destroy Ethen's bone marrow (which was free of cancer when it was biopsied back in April). The stem cells will be transplanted once this high dose of chemotherapy is completed. It can take a while for the bone marrow to regain functionality after it's wiped out. Ethen will be neutropenic (essentially, having no immune system) for 20–30 days (or more perhaps), and he'll receive transplants during that time. After transplant, Ethen will receive radiation therapy.
That's all for now. Thank you for your prayers!
Tomorrow's the big day for Ethen. We will go to the hospital early, and Ethen's surgery will begin around 7:00 am. The surgeon plans for the surgery to take 3 to 4 hours. He'll begin by going into Ethen's abdomen laparoscopically to try to dissect and extract the tumor without opening Ethen's abdomen. If things are not going well via laparoscope, then the surgeon will open Ethen to resect the tumor. This is the same surgeon who biopsied the tumor and placed Ethen's Hickman line earlier in the year, and he did an excellent job as far as we can tell (Ethen's Hickman line is still in, which, from nurses' anecdotes, is not the case for some young patients who rip them right out---though this could be attributable to Ethen's good behavior :)).
Please pray that the operation goes well. Pray the surgical team is alert and precise with their actions. Pray that Ethen's body is not overwhelmed by fluid or effects of anesthesia used during surgery. Pray that the surgeon can get most, or all of the remaining tumor (it's not as important for neuroblastoma tumors to be fully resected as some other tumors). Pray that he can recover quickly and fully after surgery so as to be ready for the next phases of treatment.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Once surgery is completed, Ethen will have completed phase 1 of 3 treatment phases. In two or three weeks Ethen will receive another scan to determine what, if anything, remains of the tumor. For phase 2, Ethen will receive stem cell transplant and radiation therapy to try to eliminate any trace of cancer in his body. He will be admitted sometime near the beginning of September for the stem cell transplant, which could take 30–40 days in the hospital. This is a long stay because Ethen will be administered a high dose of chemotherapy to try to destroy the cancer, but it will also destroy Ethen's bone marrow (which was free of cancer when it was biopsied back in April). The stem cells will be transplanted once this high dose of chemotherapy is completed. It can take a while for the bone marrow to regain functionality after it's wiped out. Ethen will be neutropenic (essentially, having no immune system) for 20–30 days (or more perhaps), and he'll receive transplants during that time. After transplant, Ethen will receive radiation therapy.
That's all for now. Thank you for your prayers!
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