Outpatient chemo

Carter...Say cheese, not show cheese!

Today was our weekly visit to the CHOC Outpatient Infusion Center. We haven’t become as familiar with the clinic as we thought we would because we have ended up being inpatient at the hospital more than we had anticipated. It is so nice though to go and have your treatment and go home. Carter had an hour-long drip of an antibiotic which helps fight pneumonia. We have this drug once a month. Then, he had his weekly chemo drug (the one with all the rare side effects which Carter seems to have gotten). It is such a small amount in the syringe compared to other drugs he receives, yet it is so potent. We can’t show any adverse feelings towards chemo drugs though, we are thankful to have them and they are often the drugs that save many people’s lives.

Carter did great today. His weight was still up, no fever and he got to watch Barney at the clinic. One of the oncologists said they will check Carter’s AFP levels again next week. It should be interesting to see if they have dropped dramatically again. We don’t really know what to expect. At the beginning of all of this the doctors had said they weren’t sure if it was one massive tumor, or multiple tumors in Carter’s liver. They told us we needed to do chemo to shrink it down and see exactly what we are working with. Well, from the last MRI at UCLA, the surgeon had told us there are two tumors on the right lobe and two tumors on the left lobe. One tumor on the left side has shrunken dramatically, and one on the right has shrunken quite a bit. However, one tumor on either side hasn’t changed much in size. Therefore, both lobes of the liver are affected, and this usually means a transplant. So, if Carter’s AFP levels are much lower, it would be interesting to rescan and see what has improved. At the end of the day though, we know transplant is the best option for no recurrence of cancer…bottom line.

We just wanted to thank Sarah Kane at Marcus and Millichap in Newport Beach. She works with Matt and has organized a fundraiser for Carter at El Torito tomorrow from 11am-9:30pm. We know she has been working hard on putting this together, and we are so very grateful. You are extremely thoughtful Sarah! Thank you!