Yesterday, Andrew and I (and his parents) traveled to Memorial- Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City to meet 2 doctors for a second opinion of Andrew's diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Carol Morris, Orthopedic Oncologist and Dr. Lenni Wexler, Peds Oncologist were both very helpful in, again, walking us though the treatment process and Andrew's diagnosis. Since Andrew's case is so rare, there are only about 300 cases per year of Ewing's and far less of those are adults, you can image that everyone wants to have him under their care. Some Sarcoma doctors may go there entire career and never run across an adult case that they get to treat. With that said, we feel comfortable with the decision that Dr. Thornton has made at Johns Hopkins and he will be continuing his treatment under her care.
Andrew will begin his 3 day hospital stay on Monday June 29th in Reston Hospital in Virginia under the daily care of Dr. Felice and the overall care of Dr. Thornton at Johns Hopkins. The option of surgery and/or radiation or a combo of the two, will be discussed and revisited around weeks 9-12 of his treatment. A decision will be made then about how to proceed.
As you can imagine we are all very exhausted and hope to take the weekend to sleep and get ready for the long week ahead. Linda and Pete (my parents) will be coming to stay with us from Sunday to Wednesday of next week and then Andrew's parents, Gwen and Steve, will be with us from Wednesday through the weekend. We are very lucky to have supportive parents, who just happen to be teachers and have the summer off (or in my dad's case have every day as Sunday -- Mr. Retired), who are able to help out.
We really appreciate all of our friends who have also offered to help in any way needed. We promise to take you up on your dinner offers and movie nights once we get this treatment started and can better predict Andrew's schedule.
But for now, I bid you adieu ......
