The Verdict.

Well it was an early morning. I got on the road at about 5:30 am to head to Rochester, MN. I met Mom and Dad at their hotel and we went down for coffee at Caribou Coffee in the tunnels (they call it the Subway) of Mayo Clinic. It's like a mall down there! It was hard seeing SO many sick people down there, but encouraging knowing they were all it the best place possible to beat their disease. Dad seemed as chipper and healthy as ever - just a bandage on his arm where they injected the dye for his MRI that he had at 6:15 am that morning. Shortly after we got our coffee, Dad's little sister, Pat showed up and then Erin came and we were off to see the urologist.

Dr. Leibovich is dad's urologist (kidney doctor). The first thing he did was confirm that it is indeed Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma (kidney cancer). The good news was that it is a grade 2. The grade signifies on a scale of 1-4 how aggressive the cancer is. The less good news is that it is stage IV metastatic, meaning it is in the most advanced stage and has spread throughout his body. Considering the fact that he feels and looks great, the dr. advised that we start chemotherapy right away to stabilize and hopefully shrink many of the tumors, then do surgery in 3-6 months. That sounded good to us, but we still needed to meet with the Oncologist (cancer specialist), Dr. Richardson and Gastroenterologist, Dr. Que (for his pancreas). It was a long day - everyone was running behind so we weren't able to get lunch because it was one doctor to the next. Another bit of good news is that the mass on his pancreas is part of the kidney cancer and Dr. Que said it would be no problem to remove it come surgery time and in the meantime, it shouldn't bother him.

On June 28th, he will go back up to Mayo to meet with Dr. Richardson and get started on his chemotherapy. They will be putting him on the drug, Sutent, which doesn't carry the usual chemo affects of hairloss and nausea. They warned that there may be other side affect, but I don't think he'll have any. He's so tough.

That should bring you up to date. We are so grateful for all of the prayers and kindness from everyone. We are all so blessed to have such a caring and loving community, family and friends. EVERYTHING - from the kind words, the prayers, the prayer shawls, the comfort food and the visits mean more than you can ever know. We love you all and hope you will continue to pray for us.