Latest news on Remington

Today the radiologist measured the tumor on the CT scan and determined that it has shrunk 10mm so far. Even he was surprised at the amount of change. Now we have a new wrinkle to deal with. The tumor is dying so fast that Remington's body can't absorb the fluids from the breakdown. This morning they put a small chest tube called a "pig tail" in between his ribs to drain that fluid out. They have drained over 300 cc's out so far. All of that fluid was sitting in his chest keeping his lung from inflating. The doctor is already hearing air moving in his left lung. It is not much so far but, it is still more than he had yesterday. They are planning to remove the breathing tube tomorrow. We were hoping for today, but his tongue is still too swollen from his chemo. They would rather wait another day to give his body a little more time to heal before removing the tube. His ANC count is now above 1000 so his risk of infection is going down every day. The schedule is looking like the next round of chemo therapy wil start the middle of next week. This course will be a 5 day treatment. (His first was a 2 day treatment.) We are hoping he will be done with this round of chemo and be able to come home for Christmas. We will have to wait and see how he tolerates this next week. Keep your fingers crossed.