Wednesday, December 7, 2011

What the hell? Isabel??

Updates on Isabel:
As many of you have heard, Isabel went in for her routine 6 month scans last Monday. They found a spot that looked suspicious & Jen was told they would biopsy it with in the next week.  They met with Isabel's Doctor the next day. He scheduled a surgery for the following day (Wednesday). The spot was found in the pelvis, looking to be about an inch. She went in for a biopsy & because it was so small they took out all they could.  It turns out that the tumor was shaped like a lollipop. They were able to get the top off, but not the stem/stick looking part. She had a PET scan today, this test determines if the internal organs were affected by the cancer. Scans came out clean, so the cancer was spotted early and contained to one area. This is a sarcoma cancer. They are still waiting on tests to determine if it is rhabdomyo (same as last time) or if it is another type of sarcoma. The tests were sent across country to the leading physician specializing in sarcoma.
What the difference means-
If it is rabdo again, treatment will be similar to what it was last time. One treatment per week. 2 weeks of outpatient treatments & the third week will be an overnight treatment. Then start over.
If it is anything BUT rabdo, the treatment is quite a bit more involved. It would be 3 days of admitted treatment, 2-3 days off & then 5 days of admitted treatment, a few days off, then start over, which means she would pretty much live down at primarys.
Pray it is rabdo.
The Doctor has opted for a portacath instead of a central line. Anyone who remembers last time, Isabel had a little tube that came out of her chest, this was to hook up IVs for treatments. This time she will have a portacath. Which will be inserted under her skin on her chest. What the difference means- with a central line, she wasn't able to swim or bath, she had 1 shower a week to keep clean.  With a portacath she will be able to take family trips to Bear Lake, swim & bath/shower with out any worries.
She will be getting her portacath placed Monday or Tuesday of next week.
She will have one year of treatment regardless of which type of cancer it turns out to be. She will also have radiation done later on in the treatment.
Not sure when the first treatment will be as she has to have 7-10 days recovery time from the portacath surgery. The Doctor did state that he would take the holidays into consideration. That can mean many things, depending on the type of sarcoma it turns out to be.

For anyone asking "What can I do?"  Well, not much right now. We need to find out what type of Sarcoma it is before we make a game plan.  If it is rabdo, Jen has stated that 1 meal per week on the treatment day, 2 meals the week of an overnight treatment will work out for her family needs. 

I will keep this posted as I get the information.

2 comments:

Krystal said...

I've been so bad about keeping up so I'm not sure who this is, but either way, I'm so sorry to hear this. Hope all goes well for her. <3

Our Family said...

She is Nic's niece. She turns 10 next week. Her first round with cancer was during kindergarten. So in 10 years of life, she will have had cancer twice, numerous blood transfusions, and a handful of surgeries.