Update #30

Dear all,

  A couple weeks ago, Rob had another CT scan to check out how things are going. Dr Wong was happy to tell us that the tumour is still shrinking. We of course were pretty excited to hear that, since it had been since December of last year that we had last heard anything. Dr. Wong was so positive with how it was going that he decided it was time to mention it to the surgeon again to see if maybe the tumour was shrunk small enough for a chance to completely remove it. Dr. Wong did say that he wasn't totally sure with what she'd say, but it was worth a try.
  So today we had an appointment with Dr. Wirtzfeld, the surgeon who we had seen last September. She took her time reviewing the scan and Rob's current physical condition(which is excellent by the way) and decided that surgery is still a no go. Rob and I actually did expect this. Of course we're disappointed, but felt it was maybe a bit unrealistic to get our hopes up too much while we still know that there is a large mass inside.
   Dr. Wirtzfeld explained to us that while the tumour IS shrinking, it still needs to shrink away from some of the more vital body parts (kidneys, spine & tissue surrounding the spine, etc) before it would be viable to do the surgery. It has pulled away somewhat from the right kidney, but it still quite entangled with the left kidney and the more major muscles/nerves to do with the spine, etc. From the way she spoke, they have no problem with removing a kidney, major blood vessels (replacing those with artifcial blood vessels), but there is just no way they can touch the area around the spine. And they won't consider going in to remove the mass until they are entirely sure they will get ALL of the tissue. The doctors are all still so surprised how Rob is doing, they can't believe he is in no pain and has no symptoms of anything. We are so happy with how Rob is doing, and it feels the doctors are okay to just let things be (since it is heading in the right direction, i.e. shrinking tumour) instead of risking such a major surgery right now.
   So the plan is to just keep living our lives, keeping up with CT scans every 3 months, until hopefully in the near future the surgeons will decide that it has shrunk enough to remove the mass. Some people ask if they would consider just to leave the mass alone since Rob is doing so well but the doctors and us feel we really want it out, a lot of the reasoning is to do with the fact that re-occurrence would be higher if the mass is left inside.
   In the meantime, we have felt a lot of normalcy return to our lives in the last couple weeks. Rob had his first full week of work last week! Woo-hoo! I've started part time again as well. Man, there isn't a better feeling for both of us! We are so thankful where things are at, God has certainly answered our prayers in this too. After a year and a half of being off work, fighting cancer and the multitude of other issues that come with this, we can do nothing now but express our thanksgiving and give our Heavenly Father all the praise.

Psalm 89:1 - I will sing of the LORD's great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.
 

Update #29

Hello all, 

Its been a while since the last post on here. Everything has been going so well, Robs health is definitely on the up and up. We have known ever since he was first diagnosed (1 year and almost 5 months ago, can you believe it has been that long?!) that he would need to have surgery to remove some/all of the cancer, and it hasn't been until this point that that a surgery finally happened. Like we heard back in August, the mass in his retroperitoneal cavity (stomach) that is slowly shrinking is still not an option to surgically remove because it is still wrapped around different organs. We pray that it will continue to shrink, so that surgery for that may happen in the future. The doctors haven't even dared to guesstimate a time for that; it will be a unbelievable moment when the time comes for that.

The surgery that happened this past Monday was something that the doctors have planned since day one, but didn't seem to be a big deal until a lot of Rob's other health issues were resolved. Because it still showed to be cancerous, Rob underwent a left Inguinal Orchiectomy and Kidney stent exchange, which altogether sounds super fancy, but was just a day surgery. We're thankful to say it all went well and as expected. Rob will likely take the next number of weeks to recuperate, but we are both very glad to have that behind us now. We are both eagerly looking forward to starting/finding work and resuming that part of 'normal' life! There are obviously more scans/appointments ahead of us, but we are so thankful to our heavenly Father to be at this point in our lives.