Playing Offense

Hello, friends! Lots going on with #TeamRavi. We had an excellent meeting with an orthopedic surgeon at the Mayo Clinic. Dr H believes he can remove the tumor from Ravi’s humerus and still salvage the arm. He may not be able to reach his hand over his head anymore and will lose a little finger dexterity on the left hand, but everything else should still work. This is so much better than the option offered to us by the first surgeon we talked to. When in doubt, ask for a second opinion, or a third! Surgery is scheduled for July 28 and Ravi will be in the hospital for 5 days. After the surgeon gives him the green light, Ravi will have two or three more rounds of a different type of chemo. This kind of chemo can be done at the same time as radiation. Somewhere in there, at Mayo or Children’s Hospital, Ravi will have the nodules removed from his lungs. This leaves the metastatic growths on L3 and his tibia which we hope to blast to kingdom comes with radiation.

This is a far cry from where we were a week ago, only talking about palliative care and quality of what life was left for Ravi. That was playing defense, trying to stave off the cancer to get a little more time. With the discovery of this surgeon, I feel we are now playing offense. We are not trying to just hold back the cancer; we are trying to end it. This is going to be a long tough road, but Ravi has, again and again, shown us his resilience and his fighting spirit.

Something the doctor said today stuck with me. She said I was a good medical sleuth for finding second opinions. I think this was a compliment, but it sat wrong. Honestly, that is her job. If one option does not work, find another one. I did not like the first surgeon or his ideas, so I found a better one. I think the lung surgeon at Children’s Hospital is competent, but the surgeon at Mayo is one of the best in the world and uses cutting edge technology. Is it audacious of me to ask one of the best surgeons around to operate on my son? Maybe, but that will not stop me. The worst she can do is say no, but she also may have better ideas. I am a mom. I am not a doctor. I am not a magician. It should not be my job to be a medical sleuth, yet here we are. If a doctor has reached the end of her skill set, rather than pointing a patient at palliative care, she should be reaching out to other doctors in her field for advice and ideas of where to go next. Rant over. But, from now on, if I don’t think the options given to me by one doctor are sound, I will go seeking another opinion.

So, where are we now? This is the quiet before the storm. We have no chemo during the month of August. We have a PET scan and an MRI. We have labs twice a week. We have many things to set up before we go to Rochester at the end of the month. Fortunately, Mayo is very good at streamlining all the appointments a patient needs into one or two days.

There was one other instance where I had to question a doctor. Since Ravi is 21, the surgeon was going to put him in an adult ward. I did not think this was a good idea. Ravi is always in the pediatric oncology ward when he is in the hospital. Though he is technically an adult, he has the needs of a younger child and thrives in the pediatric ward. Furthermore, the pediatric ward has fun things like music therapy, therapy dogs, PT, child life, etc. All of these things make the days go faster and make them more enjoyable. I pointed this out to one of the nurses I talked to at Mayo, and she said that she would request Ravi be put in a pediatric ward. Dr. Greengard, our oncologist, agreed with me and said that she would recommend this as well.

It has been a busy week, and a bit of a rollercoaster. But I feel we have a game plan that will put Ravi that much closer to recovery. Thank you again to all my friends who have prayed, sent good energy and vibes, asked about Ravi, or just showed up. You are much appreciated and much loved. We will be in touch. Be good humans. #TeamRavi.