Visit to Roswell

Yesterday we visited Roswell Cancer center in Buffalo, NY and had a consultation with Dr. Michael Wong. Visiting Roswell concerned me as I was unsure of what we would find, but the entire situation was positive from the moment we entered the building and were greeted by an associate to the end when the valet attendant delivered the Cassarino van to us at the door.

Our visit confirmed, by Dr Wong, that we are on the right track! He was very familiar with Joe's medical history and after answering all of our questions was able to give us a wonderful overview of Renal Cell Cancer and treatment options. He affirmed that we are on the right path with the Sutent pills daily and the interferon shots every other day. He told us to remain on this course of treatment for the duration (1 month on, 2 weeks off) and then either complete a set of scans or complete another course of treatment, and then re-scan. At this point we will know whether this course of treatment is working or not. If this course is NOT working, he will then be a candidate for high dose IL-2 at Roswell. Dr. Wong treats 6 patients each week with high dose IL-2 at Roswell versus Strong Memorial Hospital who treat 6 patients per year! Thus. if we get to the point that he is in need of changing his treatment from interferon to interleukin-2, we will have this treatment at Roswell under Dr. Wong's care.

Dr. Wong has only seen one patient with the chylous ascities that Joe has and also concurred that going to a TPN nutritional cycle for a short period of time may ba a better method to close the lymph system than what we're doing with the low fat diet. We are waiting for the nutritional folks at Strong Memorial Hospital to call us with an open bed and the time to get a pick line inserted into Joe and the proper mix to get Joe back on track nutritionally. He's lost about 20 pounds since this has happened.

Dr Wong did discuss the stem cell transplant with us but lead us to believe that the IL-2 treatments and/or the Interferon treatments, at this time, is a better option for us. We won't stop pursuing this avenue, but at this time, it's comforting to know that he concurs with Dr. Kohli about what is best for Joe.

Joe is resting at home today, pretty tired from our trek to Buffalo, and we are scheduled to see Dr. Kohli on Friday at 1 pm. In the meantime, Maureen is trying to get us into the hospital for the TPN admission - however -with the weekend coming and our past experience with Strong and weekend work - if it's not tomorrow, we'll wait until Monday. We are confident that once he is being fed via the TPN, he will regain some strength and the ascities will heal.

Keep your cards and well wishes coming - we feel the positive energy that is being directed our way!

Much love
Vicki, Gina and Tom