Yesterday Ethan had his CT scan to assess the size and position of the tumours before surgery. We had a scheduled appointment tomorrow (Thursday) with our oncologist Dr Geoff and our surgeon Dr Jonty. But the hospital called today and had to reschedule our appointment until Friday. Jerusha and Ethan still have to go in tomorrow morning to meet with the anesthetist and we will all go in again on Friday for the scan results.
Ethan has had two previous CT scans. The first was on August 19th just after the tumours were discovered. The second scan was about 5 weeks later towards the end of September as he neared the end of the first round of chemo. It was then that we saw the shrinkage in the tumours and it was decided to do another 6 weeks of chemo.
So we haven’t had a scan for several months and are looking forward to the results on Friday. We have felt that things are going well for Ethan – he has been putting on weight and overall has been increasing in energy, but until we can see those scans it is impossible to know exactly what is going on inside of him.
Jerusha’s youngest brother Sam arrived home today after serving a two year volunteer mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints in New Zealand. It was great to see him again, the kids were particularly excited as “Uncle Sam” has always been a favourite (except when he was in his full body lizard costume).
So I am home tonight and thought I’d post a few of Ethan’s original scans from August. Usually you get all your scans on a disc when you have finished all your treatments, but we were fortunate that our oncologist took a few screen shots for us at the beginning and let us have copies. We don’t have a copy of the September scans and I’m not expecting to get a copy of the December ones just yet, but we’ll see how we go.
Please keep in mind two things as you look at these scans. Firstly I am not a doctor and so if I get some body parts mixed up or wrongly named please forgive me (and maybe drop me an email letting me know). Secondly these are just screen shots. The doctors view these scans by scrolling them in and out so they understand the depth and have a more complete picture.
As we’ve written before the spots in the lungs were not evident in the September scan and the protrusion from his side disappeared within a few weeks of starting the chemo. It’s interesting to look back and see how far he’s come in a little over 3 months.
We appreciate the interest and love that you have for Ethan and our family. We appreciate the prayers, faith and best wishes that come from so many of you all around the world. Hopefully these scans give you a little more understanding of where he started from and we can compare them to some scans in the future where is completely clear.