MD Anderson

This photo doesn't do MD Anderson justice. It consists of five large buildings and is a part of what is called the Texas Medical Center (TMC). Hospitals everywhere you look. TMC sits on 1,345 acres and is the eighth largest business district in the USA. We have never seen anything like it. Truly amazing.

The highlights from our visit were that Aaron was the tallest patient the nurse had ever had. She couldn't even reach high enough to pull the height rod up to measure him and when he tried to help he pulled the top part right off the rod. It only goes up to 6'6". 

The doctor was great. He took all the time we needed to answer our questions. Our main question being what else we can be doing to knock this cancer out. He said it is an excellent question, but there is no research that shows combining treatments is helpful or how well it works or doesn't work. We do know Tarceva is sensitive to food and other drugs. It has to be taken in a very specific way so as to not interfere with its effectiveness, so the current treatment is the best. We will not be adding any other treatment. The visit may prove most helpful if a drug trial comes along that Aaron is eligible for and would offer him a potential life saving medicine at a crucial time. The doctor told Aaron he can call him directly to check for such trials and he is willing to do that because we made the trip down and he is now in MD's system.

The overreaching thought we came away with is that the treatment we're receiving at Huntsman is the same as what we'd be getting from MD. We've been extremely happy with the care we're getting in Utah and are grateful we can take advantage of trials MD will get that Huntsman won't. We look at all we are doing as part of a gathering of a team to keep Aaron around for a long time.

Aaron asked the doctor to rate the severity of his case on a scale from 1-10, 10 being the worst. He scored a perfect 10. That was based on his first scans at diagnosis. His scans now would earn him a 2, in the doctor's opinion. Our Utah doctor told us you can't get closer to full respiratory failure than what Aaron was at back in March. All three of the oncologists we have seen agree that we could not have asked for a better response and better scan results.

MD asks patients to plan on being in Texas for 3-5 days. Our appointment lasted 4 hours. That left us with three days to wander around Houston. We found plenty to do.

Met up with a friend from work.

Toured Rice University.

Our new friend and tour guide of Rice U.

This is Rick and you can't see but he is on crutches because his right leg is amputated just below the knee. He chased us down because he said he could tell Aaron and I had a happy marriage. He went on to tell us about his life and ended with, "I'm not asking for any money. I just need to talk sometimes."
We all need validation and kindness, don't we.

We also spent time in the Houston Fine Arts Museum. I loved this painting titled "The Elder Sister" by a French artist. 

The Houston LDS Temple. This is 15 minutes north of where my family lived years ago. I knew nothing of temples back then and I am grateful I can now say I know something of them.