Protocol Change

The doctors want to change Heath’s protocol. They scan his tumor after each complete cycle of chemo and then compare that scan to the past scans. Then they review it all at there weekly tumor review board meetings.

The most recent scan showed that the part of the tumor that is in the bone is stable but the part of the tumor that is in the soft tissue is changing. They said not to worry too much because this is common but that it did warrant a change in protocol.

It goes without saying that we are worried but we are fortunate that they have the technology to see the changes so they can change the protocol accordingly.

They want to put Heath on a different chemo called Ifosfamide which is geared more towards soft tissue sarcomas. He will get two rounds of the Ifosfamide with a 2 week break in between. They also want to move the Proton Beam Radiation treatment up approximately one month. That should put us in Boston in the second week in October.

Dr. Agresta at Moffitt also sent the scans to Harvard so they can review them at their weekly tumor review board meeting.

Please pray for Heath and pray that this new protocol will shrink the soft tissue part of the tumor to nothing. Also pray for the doctors so they can make the correct decisions on Heath's treatment as well as all the other patients that they are treating.

Article in the Bradenton Herald today about Heath

There is an article about Heath in the local section of today's Bradenton Herald, Sunday 8-20-06.

Donna Wright came to our house several weeks ago and interviewed Heath. She also made several phones calls and interviewed some of the doctors over the phone, one of which was Dr. Letson. The article is titled 'Network' helps with teen boy's cancer.

If you are unable to buy a copy, here is a direct link: http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/15315962.htm

I don't think the link above shows pictures. The article in the paper shows three pictures of Heath: one with Allen and Mike, one with his dad Gary and one with his mom Karis and myself. If I can find the pictures, I'll try and post them here.

Back at Moffitt on 8/20/2006

Heath is back at Moffitt for Methotrexate chemo until Wednesday. He will only have a couple days off before he has to come back next Sunday for another round of Methotrexate.

Update

Heath is back home resting now. He just got home yesterday, 8/2/06, from Moffitt. He went in on Saturday. Karis's birthday was Sunday, guess what she wished for.

This round was delayed by a week due to his throat being very sore from the previous round of Methotrexate. This round was the Adriamycin & Cisplatin chemo, which is the beginning of his 4th cycle, so he is still very tired and a little weak.

During his time off Karis and I took Heath, Karissa and some of their friends to Busch Gardens. Heath also went fishing with his dad a couple of times. I'm not sure what they caught but they had fun.

Karis is trying to make arrangements for us to fly up to Ohio to visit her family, especially her Dad. He has not been well and she hasn't been up there since last October and the kids have not been up for 2 years. She needs to time it around Heath's treatments and doctor appointments. We are concerned with exposing Heath to the germs from flying on a commercial airline so Karis did a little research and found this info about CAIRFlight. Their "goal is to eliminate distance as a barrier to accessing essential medical resources or reuniting families in critical times". I'll put the link on this blog in case anyone ever needs something like this or if anyone would like to give them a donation.

Please continue to pray for healing for Heath and for his grandpa Bill in Ohio.