Kevin celebrated his 47th birthday this week. Each year brings extra special meaning. Terrell made a dinner with all of his favorites. The Eason's joined us for the celebration.
Our favorite presents are always the ones that the girls make for us. Sidney made her dad a stress ball.
Kendall drew him an awesome picture!
The girls were great hostesses for the evening. They showered lots of love on Kevin.
Kevin's birthday was preceded by quite an eventful week for our family. We had all been very sick over the Thanksgiving holiday. Just as I was recovering from the flu, I got a major respiratory cold. I was scheduled to fly to Chicago Wednesday morning and return late Friday night. The Sunday before, I was feeling horrible, and my gut was telling me I should not make the trip. I called my boss to discuss my options. We decided that I would participate in the meeting remotely.
I am very grateful that I listened to my gut, because the week turned out to be nuts. I remained very sick throughout the week, but was at least able to function. Kevin was scheduled for a quick outpatient knee surgery on Tuesday afternoon (another story). He was supposed to head home about one hour after the surgery. About 6 hours after they surgery, they were unable to take him off oxygen without his levels dropping. They decided to admit him overnight. He was pretty sick, and they continued to keep him on oxygen. The following morning, they released him and kept him on oxygen at home. They coordinated with his oncologist for follow up, as we had appointments scheduled with him on Friday.
Early Friday morning, Kevin had his first CT scan in 3 months. We were given the results Friday afternoon. The cancer had started to progress. The doctor presented Kevin with a number of options, all of which included going back to chemotherapy. Several of the chemotherapies were formations that he had already been on and had discontinued either due to ineffectiveness or toxicity. Kevin was not fired up about this. Mentally and physically this did not seem like a good option. After some thought, the doctor gave us an additional option, which we agreed to do. It is a course of action that is still being studied. They decided to radiate one of the lymph nodes that had grown. It was located in an area away from his previous radiation. It was also far enough away from the lungs that they could do it relatively safely. There are 3-4 other tumors that are growing that will not be radiated. The notion is that radiating the one lymph node will activate the immune system and allow the immunotherapy drugs to start working again, hopefully triggering it to go after the other tumors.
Kevin was fitted for a radiation mask yesterday. Super cool process. He has decided that it was similar to a Hans Solo, Star Wars scene. He has also determined that he is asking to keep the mask once radiation is done. He will start 13 consecutive days of radiation next Monday. He will finish before Christmas - woot woot! In the meantime, they will continue with the immunotherapy infusions. Here is to another adventure in the world of medicine. Keep us in your prayers!
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