Back in Utah. Big Update, Lots of News

Hey everyone, Karen and I are back home in Utah. We had a good time in New York. We did a lot of the sightseeing that we wanted to do. We were able to meet up with one of Karen's friends and her husband and do some other fun things as well. I really learned my way around Manhatten with using the subway, buses, shuttles, air trains, and taxis. The hotel was great and we're really grateful to Darlene for being so kind to us.

Well, despite the fun, we weren't in NY to go sightseeing. I got my testing done at Sloan Kettering and the results came back on Thursday. Dr Feldman was at a convention so we got the results from one of his co-workers. Dr. Feldman was still behind the scenes e-mailing instructions at 2AM the night before when he saw the results. My AFP is up to 500 or so and there are a couple tumors that show up on CT. There is one in my abdominal lymph nodes that looks to be 1.1 by 1.3 centimeters. There is one in my lungs that is .7 millimeters. In order to qualify for the study, an abdominal lymph node has to be 1.5 centimeters or a tumor in another organ has to be 1 centimeter. So, I'm off eligibility by .2 millimeters or so.

Frustrating, and disappointing. In the grand scheme of things, it's not a big deal, but I had hoped to get started. The unbending nature of the eligibility criteria seems a little ridiculous. Because of my insistence on doing this study and not any others, I'm back in Salt Lake for a few weeks to let the cancer do a little growing. I'll head back to New York in a few weeks (by myself this time) and repeat the tests. I have no doubts that the tumors will be more than big enough by that point and I'll get started.

Now, the next piece of news. Several months ago, Karen and I were given an unexpected opportunity to toy with the idea of doing In Vitro Fertilization and becoming parents. We decided to meet with the doctors at the reproductive clinic in Sandy, UT and do preliminary testing. After an educational class, lots of testing, hormone shots, and prenatal vitamins, they began the embryo transfer process. A bunch of healthy eggs were taken out of Karen and fertilized with some of my guys that had been frozen since before my first chemotherapy. This resulted in 12 embryos of varying quality. 12 is a good number and it seemed to surprise the nurses.

Next, they cultured the embryos for 5 days. At that point they are called blastocysts. Dr. Blauer showed us the two that were of very high quality. We chose to have them implanted in Karen and that operation was successful. I've got a picture of the little guys that I'll attach to this post. Before we left, Karen took a pregnancy test way before she was supposed to and it said pregnant. She got a quick blood test and the numbers looked good. They told us to be cautiously optimistic. Towards the end of our stay in New York, Karen definitely "felt" pregnant. She took another test before we came home and it still said pregnant. She got a blood test today and the numbers they look for are through the roof.

So, she's pregnant! :)

It's still very strange for me to say the words, "I'm going to be a dad". I'm very happy though. I cannot put into words how much it means to me that this is happening. Nothing could mean more to me at this point. Even seeing the picture of the embryos was enough to make me smile for hours. At a time in my life where very little has gone "right", something like this is enough to make life feel full and wonderful. All the more reason to keep fighting this relentless cancer, right?



I'm not going to use this blog as a week by week update of the pregnancy. We'll save that for another blog or facebook. There's no reason to associate cancer and this wonderful thing too much anyways. I'll leave you knowing that Karen is very much pregnant. I found myself leaving Wal-Mart today with Saltine crackers, a big jar of pickles, and a bunch of ice cream sandwiches.

Peace out,
Sean

PS: We have a VERY high chance of having twins.