A BEADazzled Liver

It looks like Tisha’s liver is going to be BEADazzled! Her appointment with the TheraSphere clinic in Dallas went very well! Mark and Metisha really liked the doctors and the clinic and believe this is the best treatment option. If everything goes as planned, she will receive her first round of liver bling (beads) next Friday (12/18/09)! So here is what this treatment will include:

• TheraSphere uses glass beads to target radiation or chemo directly to tumors.
• They will be using chemo with Metisha’s beads.
• The beads are designed to block the blood flow to the tumor while the chemo directly attacks the tumor.
• The beads are inserted directly into main arteries feeding the liver.
• They cannot treat the entire liver at one time so they treat one section at a time. They anticipate they will divide her liver into 2 to 3 sections.
• They will treat one section, wait about 3 weeks and then treat the next section.
• She will have an overnight hospital stay with each treatment.
• The side effects are much less than traditional chemo. They said she may have some discomfort in her abdomen and may experience some light hair loss. They have only had one patient lose all of her hair.
• After they have blinged out all of her liver with beads, they will wait 3 months and then do another scan to see how well the beads have worked.
• Typically the goal is to control or reduce the cancer in the liver; it will not necessarily kill all of the cancer in her liver.

Even though the doctors do not say this can kill all of the cancer in the liver, our pray is that Tisha will be the all star and God will use this treatment to completely cure her liver. We believe this can and will happen!

We are so thankful to have a plan again! Mark and Metisha are extremely thankful to be able to get her treatments in the DFW area and stay close to home. All of her doctors are discussing restarting her on her oral chemo again. She stopped taking the oral chemo after the scan showed growth in the liver, but the doctors think she may need to keep on that drug because it was causing her cancer markers to go down. Pray for wisdom for the doctors in this decision and also pray for protection over Metisha from the side effects of the drugs. She did fine on low doses but developed very painful blisters on her feet and hands on higher doses.

The doctors that met Tisha on Tuesday could not believe how well she is feeling and the few side effects she has from the cancer in her liver. We know that is a direct result of the millions of prayers that have been said for her and we thank you for constantly praying with us through this battle!

So as Tisha starts the next round of treatment you can pray that:

• Metisha will respond better than expected and God will use this treatment to kill the cancer in her liver.
• Metisha will not experience any side effects.
• They can treat her entire liver with just 2 treatments and that both treatments can be given while she is on Christmas break from school.
• Insurance will cover the treatment without any issue or fight.
• The doctors will come to the right decision about the oral chemo drugs.

Metisha is leaving this weekend for a well deserved cancer survivor celebration with Mickey Mouse! There are six of us going and we are VERY excited and thankful to get to celebrate another year with Metisha! We have rented a scooter for her to use at the parks because of the blisters on her feet. I’m sure that will provide for multiple entertaining moments, especially since she is taking one of those key ties that you use on a wave runner to pull the key out of the ignition if you fall off! So if you are in Disney next week, watch out for a wild woman on a scooter!