Good morning everyone. Mandy just called with an update and said that when the oncologist came in he has decided that Chris should have surgery today. Apparently, the oncologist has spoken with the surgeon and they have both reviewed the CT scans, which show that there is a collection of fluid around the muscle in Chris' arm. This fluid (or "debris") around the muscle could be dead tumor or just infection, but it must come out very soon. The swelling in Chris' arm has continued to increase and the swelling now runs from his neck down to his hand and his entire arm is absolutely huge.

Chris' blood cultures have continued to come back negative, but he is still running fever. However, the fever could be "tumor fever" or it could be infection -- they just don't know.

Chris had an improved appetite yesterday and ate better than he had the day before, so this was a definite improvement. Of course, he is on no food/no water all day today because of the surgery schedule.

The surgery is scheduled for late this afternoon; no definite time has been set as of right now. The doctors want to give Chris a unit of platelets and two units of blood before doing surgery.

Mandy doesn't know what all will be involved in this surgery; it may be just to remove the debris, but also could be to remove the tumor and possibly to do the partial shoulder replacement. Basically they won't know until they get in there. If there is infection inside the arm, they will not be able to do the shoulder replacement at this time. They would have to clean all the infection, close the incision and let him recover, and then go back in later to finish the job.

She expects to be able to provide more information later today because so far this morning only the oncologist has come in. She still expects the surgeon and the resident doctor to come by and they will be providing more information as they come in.

Following this surgery, the oncologist has said that Chris may have some local radiation in the tumor area in his arm. It has apparently been long enough since his last chemo treatment that it would be safe for him to have some radiation. They cannot do the radiation in conjunction with the chemo because the levels of toxicicity would be too high.

Mandy did ask about future treatment options and whether Chris could have radiation with any of those and the oncologist explained that if Chris has his chemo in pill form and not chemo through the port, then he can continue with radiation.

Mandy is asking us to pray over Chris today -- to keep him safe during surgery and to allow the doctors to do everything they need to do while they are operating on Chris' arm. Please also pray for the surgeon and the oncologist as they work together to relieve the pain and swelling that Chris is experiencing. And pray for Mandy as she waits through this surgery not knowing exactly what is happening.

Thank you!
~Kathie