From Darby: We just finished meeting with Clayton’s surgeon, Dr. Baucom, to get her opinion on the scans and see what the options were moving forward. She mentioned we could see if it was possible to biopsy the spot in Clayton’s spine to see if it’s cancer, but she felt pretty sure that the spot in his chest probably was since it was in previous scans (and has grown since then some) so if we were going to do chemo to treat the spot in his chest, it wasn’t worth doing a biopsy for the spine. If it responded to the chemo, we would know it was cancer. If it didn’t, we would know if wasn’t. At this point with stage 4, it seems like staying on Avastin will probably be something Clayton will always need to do to keep cancer at bay (this is the IV treatment he does every 3 weeks), but you can’t stay on it if you are having surgery because it constricts your blood vessels. So it’s not the best situation if you’re needing surgery. After talking with Dr. Baucom, we feel like the wise decision is to go ahead and start an aggressive chemo again to treat the spot in his chest (and possibly the spot on his spine if it is cancer) while it’s relatively small, rather than stop all chemo and do the reversal surgery. We just do not want to chance being off of all chemo for potentially 10-12 more weeks while he waits for surgery and then heals from surgery, while there are spots that are causing concern. We are hopeful that because we caught them so early that they will respond to the treatment. At this point, it looks like having the reversal surgery will just be a matter of picking a window when there is no evidence of disease and taking the chance that the cancer will not grow while he is off chemo, so we will just keep waiting and praying for that time. It’s just not now. Please be praying for patience for the surgery, for these spots to respond to the treatment, and for Clayton to tolerate the chemo he will have to start. We have a couple options, it just comes down to which side effects Clayton is more comfortable with. We are definitely discouraged, but we don’t feel hopeless. There is so much to be thankful for…Clayton is still feeling strong, we caught the cancer early and right now we have options. Thank you for jumping back into the fight with us, we couldn’t do it without you :heart:
Brandon Gwinn
Praying for you brother! An army of prayers coming from Dallas over you dear friend. God loves you and your family very dearly.
You are so loved and appreciated every hour here and miles away.. Praying specifically for all you perfectly shared with us. Lifting you to the King of Kings Lord of Lords for His healing power to be given to Clayton in every way Clayton needs Him.