Tumors misbehaving a bit ... 🥹

Paul’s recent scan of his liver showed some growth since his last scan in August 😥. Nothing too significant, but enough that his oncologist thinks we need to start attacking with more than just the monthly treatments.

We’re both honestly a bit shocked. We weren’t expecting this so soon. We were really thinking / hoping he was gonna get at least 2-3 years of “just treatment” before he needed more procedures and had to experience any more pain. Not the best news 😞, but we know it’s not the worst, either.

LIVER EMBOLIZATION

We’re waiting to be scheduled with an interventional radiologist to discuss liver embolization. This basically means they cut off the blood supply to the tumors to ‘starve’ them in a way to get them to calm down a bit (for lack of more educated terms). They do this by injecting blocking particles (via catheters) directly into the arteries that supply blood to the tumors. This in turn deprives the tumors of oxygen and nutrients, and should help stunt the growth for a little while.

Thankfully, it's not an 'open' surgery, but it's a painful procedure with a challenging recovery. He'll stay in the hospital for 1-3 days to manage nausea and pain, followed by several days to a couple of weeks of home recovery each time. There will be two procedures, one month apart, targeting each half of the liver. Recovery varies for everyone.

THE UPSIDES:

• It should help slow the tumor growth. 

• He could potentially get about a year of feeling a little better overall.

• It could help reduce the localized pain he has in his liver.

• It might help subdue his serotonin overload symptoms — flushing, stomach issues, irritability, etc. (The idea is that the less ‘active’ the tumors are once they are ‘starved,’ the less hormones they secrete, the less symptoms he should have.)

• He might be able to take a break from his current horrible treatment for 6+ months, which would be welcomed since it comes with some pretty unhappy side effects.

CURRENT TUMOR BURDEN + GRADE:

Currently, he has 20+ detectable tumors in his liver and one on his hip. The largest being 4.1 x 3.6 cm (about the size of a ping pong ball). They are all Grade 2 (out of 3) and considered low-grade, which is ‘good’ because it means they are at least slow growing. But the harsh reality is that the tumors can jump grades at any time, and since they have grown recently, the surgeon will be doing some more biopsies while they are in there to check to see if the grade has changed since his bowel resection surgery last March.

DOC UPDATE:

Just an extra kick in the balls — His oncologist (who we ADORE and love after choosing her over five others) told us she’s leaving MSK to be the head of oncology at Duke. 🥹 We are SO bummed. (VERY happy for her — she’s incredible and deserves it! Just definitely sucks for us!)

HAPPY STUFF:

On a happy note — Paul had a GREAT time meeting pretty much the entire roster of the 2025 NY Rangers (plus some retirees and Sam Rosen!) at their annual Casino Night fundraiser. He got a ton of selfies with the individual players and chatted with them a bit. We had a really fun time with really amazing people in his hockey fam (including my Aunt Laurie and Uncle Chuck, the best of them all ❤️!) We have more concerts and trips booked than ever, and we’re gonna keep keeping him happy between all the hell :) 

Dayna 💛

Paul and Igor! 😍