Wednesday - 3/24/2010- We are in Houston, TX

Kyle and I are staying in Houston, Texas for a couple of weeks. I told him that we can count this as our 25th anniversary trip. We came to find out if there was anything different from the procedures that the U of U. I really thought that this would be with the oncology. Hoping that they would have an in house trail that would give up better odds of beating this tumor. But as we talked to the oncologist they recommended the same procedures as the U of U. I suggested that we cancel our appointment with the surgeon and get on the earlier flight home. They prefered that we meet with him and provided us with an earlier appointment so that we could still fly home earlier. As he explained the procedure to us, we were impressed. Before the surgery they preform a functional MRI. This is an MRI that they ask him over a microphone to preform different tasks. They look at what part of the brain reacts as he preforms. They also preform a cordical mapping. The way I understand this test is that they use an electrical technic to know what is tumor and want is brain. But the main attraction the wowed us was the "BrainSuite". This is an operating room MRI. The surgeon scan Kyle and create a navigational set. Then they take him out of the machine and begin the operation. At any time they can put him back in the MRI to see if they have removed all that they need to. If they see anything they have the immediate knowledge of what they need to do. Their goal is to get out 98 plus percent of the tumor. The more that they can remove the better and less problematic it is in the future. The radiation and chemo are more effective on the less that is remaining. We fell that this is our best option. Surgery will be preformed on Monday. He will stay in the ICU that night and moved to the surgical floor for two to three days, depending on how he is doing. If he needs rehab then he will have to stay and do that. Lets all pray that he makes it through and that we can go home by next Friday. That would be wonderful!

I also learned that they will wait for two weeks after surgery to start the radiation and chemo. We will be doing these in Utah. Love you all--thanks for all of your prayers, we really feel them.