super men and wonder women

the title, to me, is in no way an exaggeration of the dozens of men and women who have teamed up to save logan from the evils of cancer and strive to return him back to good health. this week we had a surgical team, anesthesia team, pain management team, oncology team, ICU team, and the ever present legions of nurses. friday, april 4, the long-awaited and often-rescheduled 'back to school' presentation by dr. bob casey was a welcome ~yea, joyful~ chance for logan to be reunited with his classmates and teachers at nauset high, and for them to learn a little more about the facts of cancer and of logan's particular challenges. it felt like a loving embrace, with classmates cheering him on, which is of course the best part of being a friend, and standing with them in times like these.

the news from tuesday's surgery: after 14 hours of trying ever so delicately to separate the tumor from the kidney and arteries, the surgical team decided it was best to take the kidney out as well as the adrenal on logan's left side. this is one of those good news, bad news, deals: it's bad to lose a kidney (though not life threatening, lots of people live just fine with only one), yet its very good news to know that all of the cancerous tumor cells could be removed from the abdominal cavity by taking the kidney with it. apparently the dramatic success of the chemo shrinking the tumor resulted in an inflammation and scarring of tissue surrounding the tumor like the surgeon had never quite seen before.

of course, surgery is not the time when you want to hear how 'special' or 'one of a kind' your son is. as the surgeon described, the fantastic shrinkage of the tumor basically fused it to the kidney along all the capillaries which the tumor had formed to feed off the ample blood supply of the kidney. good news here definitely outweighs the bad: bottom line is that the aorta and vital organ-feeding arteries are intact and unharmed; the tumor, which yesterday was larger than a softball (meaning that originally the tumor was the size of a loaf of bread) is gone, and logan still has one beautiful, fully functional kidney and adrenal gland.

he was able to attend his grandmother's funeral in st louis just this past weekend, and actually be the 7th pallbearer (ceremoniously holding the back end of the coffin while the other 6 grandsons bore the weight of it on either side). somehow all of this coming at once keeps any one of these challenges from overwhelming us. we get a lot of perspective...

please spread the good news that he is on the mend, though he won't be back on cape until, at earliest, the end of next week. while the pain of the surgical site and recovery from anesthesia are intense, logan manages to endure it without a complaint, and to even ask for help moving his limbs every so often . he clearly understands the importance of putting forth his best effort, that while it is painful to move a little today, it will make it easier to move more tomorrow.

alas, the stem cell harvest has yet to happen, as his critical blood counts were too low before surgery, so the gm-csf (leukine) shots are being doubled with gs-cf (filgramostim), another stem-cell building stimulant. 2 shots a day for 5 days, and another attempt at stem cell harvest, our fingers are crossed that that illusive stem cell harvest will finally yield abundantly. super chemo cannot and will not happen without plenty of stem cells to rescue his bone marrow.

gracious thanks to the many who continue to send love, food, and parking vouchers. every act of kindness, no matter the size, is received with gratitude and joy.