Tuesday's news

Sorry we are posting so late tonight. We attended the Jazz game thanks to Chris coaching Jr Jazz.
We visited the surgeon today, Dr Ott, at IMC.
He took us to a conference room with a big screen TV hooked up to their computer system. He first showed Chris' CT scan from 12/17 and pointed out a mass by the pancreas that was about 2 inches in diameter, it was a swollen lymph node due to the cancer. He then showed us the CT done last week and showed us the same area, the swollon lymph node was gone...it did not even show in the scan. In fact, Dr Ott pointed out that the radiologist noted that Chris had pancreatitis because he thought it was a regular scan and not a follow up for the cancer...the radiologist could not see the cancer because it had reduced so much.
Dr. Ott stated this was the best reduction due to the chemotherapy and the radiation that he had ever seen, he called it a miracle!
So needless to say, we were very excited as the treatments could not have gone any better!
So the next step is to remove the areas that are cancer related so the residual that is still there will not go back to the full cancer seen in December. Chris will be having the "Whipple" surgery on March 9th.
He will be in the hospital for 7 days recovering and about 3 weeks before he can return to work if all goes well.
This is the 1 in 8 chance we were looking for for survival...without the surgery, death was the only outcome, great news!!
In the whipple they detach the stomach from the small intestines, remove half the pancreas (the head), remove the gall bladder, and the ducts associated with those 2 organs. Then the small intestine is connected directly to the remaining part of the pancreas and to the liver and the stomach is reattached below on a different area of the small instine. Basically, this allows for the cancer to be removed and function of the pancreas and liver to work normal as before to digest food. There can be complications, like the stomach not working for 4 to 6 weeks, but that is not common.
Chris will be in ICU for a day, then gradually he will be downgraded to a point where he can go home and recover for 3 weeks.
Gratefully, Chris' work will pay him completely while he is off his full paycheck and our insurance will pick up the bill on the 6 to 8 hour surgery.
We really appreciate your prayers and your concerns for our family! They have paid off with the best results possible, we love you all and say THANK YOU!! Miracles do happen, we hope our blessings continue...Chris wants to be around a while longer to pester Ricki and see his children grow.