Pathology Report Is In!

Hoorah for NO CANCER!

We were expecting the pathology report to come in the next couple of days. It seems like sort of a moot subject since they did remove the organ containing the cancer, but it would be interesting to hear the findings of Carter’s liver. This was especially curious to Matt and me since the surgeon had told us he almost did a resection because he couldn’t feel any cancer in the right lobe. We were so fascinated by how good his touch may be…we’ve read articles from top surgeons in the world calling him the best in the world. Whatever his call had been in the operating room, we would have respected it. You can’t find someone with more experience. Well, as it turns out…his touch is pretty good. The pathology report reads, “No residual Hepatoblastoma.”

A few of the surgeons and one of liver transplant team’s doctors (our friend) came around to see Carter this afternoon. As they were talking to us about liver levels, they pulled up the pathology report on the computer. We don’t know if any of them had a chance to review it yet, but one of the surgeons said, “Wow! Carter’s chemo really worked.” He then went on to say no cancer was left in his liver. Sort of baffled, I said, “So, I guess we can be certain that these next two rounds of chemo will completely wipe out any cancer cells remaining?!” The cancer is obviously very chemo receptive, and we can breathe a sigh a relief that the cancer will be behind us.

As this news sank in, the more mixed emotions brewed from within Matt and me. No cancer?! Why did our son just have a liver transplant? Why didn’t they do another MRI after round 4 of chemo? We just kept asking each other these questions and would try and answer making the other feel better about the decision…even though we both just had stomach aches.

This is what we do know…the pathology report just did about 20 slides of Carter’s entire liver. The areas they did these slides may have been cancer-free, but who’s to say there were no traces of cancer throughout. And once there is dead tumor, there is no certainty cancer couldn’t return there. This was the most aggressive approach and doctors with years and years of experience felt this was Carter’s best chance to live cancer-free…and he’s got a long life ahead!

Our friend, Dr. Venick must have seen the look in our eyes when the surgeon said this to us. He came back in to see Matt and Carter this evening (as I had left to stay at home with Bennett for the night). He simply told Matt with recurrence of hepatoblastoma, 1 in 4 patients survive. These simply are not good enough odds. Matt felt a lot better as Dr. Venick continued to answer Matt’s questions, and he came to realize this was the best decision. As Matt and I talked about it tonight on the phone, we were saying how the families who have lost their children to hepatoblastoma due to recurrence can only dream of giving their children medicine each day to allow them to live a healthy life. Yes, there is always the scare of rejection for us now with this new liver and we have to give Carter a huge list of meds to take each day for the rest of his life…but Carter’s getting a chance at having a long life!

Thank you to the Venicks!! Kristen your daily visits and checking in on us brighten our days at UCLA, and make this process so much easier. You are knowledgeable, experienced, and a great person. And Rob, you are a fantastic doctor! Not only does everyone in the hospital say so, we know from first-hand experience. You have allowed us to question everything and have made us understand the obstacles and outcomes. We know you have been Carter’s doctor, but you have been our friend. Thank you!