We made it to Pittsburgh!

As most of you know, it has been extremely difficult month for our family. We went from thinking about trying to have another child and getting ready to move on with our life, to finding out Drew's cancer has returned. Luckily I came across a new aggressive surgery a few months back called HIPEC from a colon cancer support website. It is surgery performed for people who have cancer limited to their abdomen. Drew has had cancer in his colon and abdomen two times before. When HIPEC is performed, the surgeon removes all the cancer, any organs touching the cancer such as the spleen, gall bladder, colon, etc. and then heated chemo is placed into the abdomen for 100 minutes and the patient is shook to ensure it coats the abdominal cavity. The surgery will last for about 10 hours. We spoke about the surgery to Drew's oncologist in December and I printed out a list of the top doctors in the nation who perform this surgery in case we ever needed it. Well, we did.

In late February we found out the Drew's cancer has returned to his abdomen and the race to find a surgeon began. For those of you close to me know that this was extremely stressful. I sent all of Drew's medical records to the top 8 Doctors who perform this surgery. Luckily 7 out of 8 accepted Drew into the program. If the cancer is on other organs or if there appears to be too must disease doctors will not perform the surgery, so we were elated when 7 of the doctors wanted to take Drew on as a patient. I never thought it would be so hard to pick a surgeon. We were back and forth with who to choose for about a week and then Drew started to experience some pain which made it even more stressful. Last week, we decided to schedule a surgery with Dr. Holtzman in Pittsburgh for April 19th as a backup plan. Our first choice was Dr. Levine in NC but we couldn't even have a consultation with him until April 7th and then a surgery would be scheduled so we wanted a backup just in case. Since Drew started having pain we were worried he couldn't wait that long and we were able to move up his surgery with Dr. Holtzman for April 5th. Last Friday on March 19th Drew decided he wanted to fly to Pittsburgh just in case he was in so much pain he needed to be admitted to the ER.

Drew and his friend Kris flew to Pittsburg on Monday March 22nd as a precaution. Luckily, on Wednesday we found out that they were able to move his surgery up to March 29th. Drew met with Dr. Holtzman yesterday and really liked him. He feels confident that we picked the right doctor and that he will do a great job. Drew also said he is extremely good looking so I am very excited to meet him! I flew out to Pittsburg today for the weekend and to help Drew get ready for the surgery on Monday. I am so happy that he is so confident in the doctor and the hospital is top notch. He will get the best care here and they will take great care of him. He will probably be in the hospital for 2 weeks and then we will stay in the area for a few days to ensure he is ok to travel. The hardest part of all of this is being away from Aubrey for so long.

We have so many wonderful friends and family who have been so supportive via calls, emails, texts, etc. and it has been so hard to get back to everyone so hopefully this blog will help keep everyone up to date. Thanks again to everyone and we love you!