More opinions

Today's chemo appointment, the fourth already, went well. It was the first time Eila received the additional drug Doxorubicin, and it'll be interesting to see how she is over the next few days. Doxorubicin is red-orange in color (the other two drugs are clear or yellow), so her diapers will also be orange for the next 48-72 hours. Go Beavs? Other than being a little more tired, she's handling everything very well so far.

Joel and I are also doing better after today. This morning we had a conference call at home with a Wilms' tumor expert from St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis. We feel very fortunate that he had time to answer our questions. He confirmed that, this time, Eila's cancer is much more rare and the data is very limited, and therefore there is no treatment protocol to follow in this case.  Still, talking with him helped settle some of our fears. He also told us that renal failure is one of the causes of the low survival rate for metachronous bilateral Wilms' tumor. We are very fortunate that we already have a nephrologist working with us, and she feels confident that renal failure is not a concern in Eila's case.

Another doctor we contacted is arranging for Eila's case to be reviewed by a multi-speciality "solid tumor" team at St. Jude and their insights will be shared with our oncology team at Doernbecher. At today's appointment we found out that Eila's current oncologist (Dr. Stork) also got responses from two Wilms' tumor experts she had contacted.  Although no one is able to provide us with a clear-cut long term plan, it is encouraging that all these experts are willing to consult with us.

It's also encouraging that all of the doctors we've contacted are in agreement that our short-term strategy is the best one: using chemo to shrink the tumor before surgery in order to preserve as much kidney tissue as possible. After surgery, pathology and kidney function tests will provide new information for our team to reevaluate her treatment plan. So unfortunately we still don't have concrete answers yet, but it's very reassuring to know that we are getting help from many sources.