It's been a terribly hard few days and I'm afraid I have more devastating news. Lucas' bowel obstruction did not resolve so the surgeon came in to speak with us yesterday. He reviewed the fluid that was removed from his abdomen and found that there were multiple cancer cells in the fluid, which indicates that the cancer is very active and widespread. He said that his cancer is "as aggressive as it gets" and because of this he is not a candidate for surgery to remove the obstruction. The surgeon also said that it is normal for end-stage peritoneal cancer to cause multiple bowel obstructions. We were and still are shocked- just one week ago we found out that the cancer returned.

So the plan from here is a bit hard to explain- they will place a "venting G tube" (a tube that sticks out of his skin that goes directly to his stomach) to allow him to drain his stomach at home when the obstruction causes him to feel uncomfortable. Because of this, he will no longer be able to really eat because large pieces of food would get stuck in the obstruction (or in the tube). He should be able to do some soft foods but it wouldn't be enough to maintain his nutrition, so they will be giving him IV nutrition (TPN) to supplement him. We're hoping to be home by the weekend after they get this all arranged. Fortunately, he is not longer having pain and overall he physically feels better than when we came in albeit much, much weaker .

We had a long discussion with his oncologist yesterday as well. From a cancer perspective, we're just trying to buy as much time as we can with Lucas without decreasing his quality of life. We talked about chemo and, this is such a difficult thing to say, the doctor said that without chemo his prognosis is weeks and with chemo (assuming he responds to the new chemo) we would be looking at possibly months. The chemo likely will not resolve the intestinal obstruction. We're planning to see how he feels over the next 2 weeks before starting chemo- he's too weak and malnourished to consider starting it now. Depending on how all of this plays out, we're still considering getting a second opinion at MD Anderson in Houston, but, honestly, it may be too late for that and we would want to get him there and back safely. We'll just take it one day at a time.

No one could have seen this coming and we don't blame his doctors or ourselves- it's just happened so quickly there was no way to see it coming. Sometimes in the journey of life goals change; our goal now is to get him home and enjoy every day that we have with him, whatever that means. Lucas has said many times now that all he wants is to "have a few good days" and I think we will be able to give him that. Please continue to pray for all of us as we navigate the hardest part of this journey. Today, our hearts are broken.