Doctors, Doctors, Doctors

Hutton’s oncologist appointment on Monday was good. We’re changing her chemo and she will start that inpatient at UCLA. It was supposed to be yesterday, Wednesday June 10th, with her next round in 21 days to be outpatient. But she was not able to get in yesterday because there were no available beds. We are praying she will be admitted today. 

This first round was also supposed to be outpatient, but with the holiday on Friday and the fact that it has to be 5 consecutive days, this week, we unfortunately have to do it in the hospital. Hutton is not happy about this but it is what it is and since it is “new chemo” it will be good to see how exactly she reacts to it while in the hospital. 

Once she moves to outpatient, it will still need to be 5 consecutive days, so we will once again, be moving up to UCLA for that week and staying in a hotel and live there for those 5 days every time she has a chemo week. Would staying in the hospital as inpatient be “easier”? Only financially 😂. But for Hutton, being able to not stay in the hospital for 5 days is so much better for her mentally and emotionally and I’m sure it is the same for Steph. So of course that is what we are going to make work. 

We also had an appointment with the lung surgeon Tuesday morning and it was great.  She believes the large spot in her lung that we initially thought was “new” isn’t actually new, it had been there since the beginning it was just really small and has just grown…which is actually great news, not that it grew, but that it isn’t a brand new spot, which means it hasn’t technically “spread”.

There are 3 total spots in her lungs, 2 on the left and 1 on the right. We are hoping and praying that the new chemo protocol that we start will shrink the tumors significantly. If the tumors shrink the surgery will be less invasive which is what we want.  Think tiny incisions as opposed to a large incision that involves moving muscle to get to the lung.  

The plan now is we will do 2 rounds of this chemo protocol, scan again, then surgery end of July. Please continue to pray for Hutton, she has taken this news well and her biggest worry has been about the surgery and loosing all the hard work she has made to be more self sufficient and mobile. The only thing she knows and understands about surgery is her first one so it is understandable her concerns and fears but we have tried to reassure her that this will be nothing like that and she will hopefully never have to go through something like that again.