Just as I was logging off a few minutes ago the phone rang and it was Pam. As you know, she's in Texas right now, with her son. She said that when she arrived she was shocked at how bad he looked. She said he had a "hollow look" in his eyes and his color was very bad. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to go out trick-or-treating with his son as he had hoped....he just wasn't up to it, was feeling too bad, in a lot of pain, unable to breath. However, yesterday....Monday....Pam took him to the doctor and they removed the device (sorry, I can't remember what it's called....Melissa will know, I'm sure) that they had put in to keep his lung from collapsing again. Pam and her DS were both nervous about that, hoping the lung wouldn't collapse again when they removed the device, and GOOD NEWS, his lung remained stable!
So this morning, they started the radiation treatments. They are not dealing with the lung yet, they are doing the radiation on the brain (if you recall, the cancer has spread to his brain, is in the right frontal lobe). They are treating the brain first because cancer on the brain can cause seizures, etc. The radiation this morning went fine, she said. It only lasted about 10 minutes, but the sessions will get longer each time, and I believe she said they would do radiation treatments for the next 14 days, then check and see if the brain cancer has shrunk.
Once they can get the brain cancer under control, then they will concentrate on the lungs.
Oh.....she also said that the doctors think her DS was born without a certain "factor" which would almost insure that he would get emphysema and/or lung cancer if he smoked. The doctor said that a normal person his age would NOT have emphysema in both lungs, even if they smoked, unless they were missing this factor. Tests have been done to determine for sure if he is lacking this factor/gene, and if he is (like the doctor thinks he is), it will be imperative that Pam's DGS knows that he must NEVER take up smoking, because this is a heredity thing, the absence of this factor. Here is a link which I THINK is what her DS has, and will explain it better than I can.
http://www.news-medical.net/news/2008/05/26/38655.aspx
If that link doesn't work, try this one, sorry...
http://lungcancer.about.com/od/glossary/g/alphaantitryp.htm
I hope I have this right, I'm pretty sure I do, but if not, Pam will correct me when she gets back home to her computer, which will be late Thursday night.
She asked that I come here and give an update and also to ask you all to continue to pray for her son. "Ladybug prayers are very powerful," she said, and we all know that is true.
Hugs all around.....
Edited 11/3/2009 4:30 pm ET by bumblebee50
