Update on Ty

Hello all our family and friends,


It has been a little while since a update and Ty and I thought you all were due for one. In the last two months Ty has been off Chemo. During this time he has been going through what is called Y/90 or Therasphere procedure at UW Medical in Seattle. It is a 3 step process and the purpose is to get rid of the spots in Ty's liver. Theraspheres are tiny little spheres of radiation and they attach themselves to the spots and work on getting rid of them.


On September 7th, we went in for Part 1 of the procedure. We checked into UW and Ty was taken into surgery and what they did was they went in through his femoral artery. They went up through it and put little coils that blocked off all the blood vessels to different parts of his body. They ended up putting 7 coils in. Blocking off the blood vessels to such parts of the body like the gallbladder, etc. Helps to make sure the radiation doesn't go into those parts of the body. After they blocked off the blood vessels, they did do a trial run of a small dose of radiation through a catheter up the femoral artery to make sure it went to Ty's liver and not his lungs. This was successful and the small dose went to the liver. After the procedure which took about 4 hours, Ty was in a recovery room for about 7 hours. This is because he had to lay flat on his back for this amount of time to make sure the artery didn't start to bleed again. It took Ty about 2 days to recover from this.


The next day we got a call from Doctor Kooy who is doing the Y/90 procedure and he wanted Ty to get some PET Scans done. He wasn't getting a accurate reading from his imaging on how the test procedure went so he wanted to get a more clear reading on how big the tumor spots were so he knew exactly where and how much Therasphere to use. So, the next week Ty went into the new Swedish hospital in Issaquah to get his scans. A couple of days later we got the results and to our surprise with Ty being off Chemo for 6 weeks at this time his scans looked the same from July. This was happy news considering he had been off Chemo.


A few days later we got the Part 2 of the procedure scheduled and last Wednesday the 28th of September we went back into UW for this. In Part 2 of the procedure they went back in the femoral artery with a catheter up to the right lobe of Ty's liver. They did injected the Theraspheres into the right lobe of the liver and directed them to the spots there. After they did this, they imaged him and saw they yes the spheres attached themselves to the tumors like they were suppose to. We were very happy to hear this. Then Ty was taken to a recovery room again and we were hoping to leave after a couple of hours but Ty had a low grade fever so they kept us there till 9 that night. It was a long day but we were happy to get home. Ty finally went back to work today as it has been a little bit slower of a recovery for him. He was really tired and sore in the liver and upper thigh area where they went in through the artery. They said it could take a week to ten days till he starts feeling a bit better.


Next week we go into to see Ty's doctor at Swedish to follow up with her on all the stuff at UW. Gratefully Doctor Wahl and the Doctor Kooy at UW know each other and can be updating each other on progress, etc. Doctor Wahl might want Ty to have Chemo next week but Ty is hoping to get out of that. He really wants all his strength since he has one more procedure to go. We will see how this goes next week with Doctor Wahl and if she gives Ty his wish.:)


At the end of this month we will be having Part 3 of Ty's procedure done at UW. In this part, they will do the same thing and go back through the femoral artery with the catheter and this time they will inject the Y/90 Theraspheres into the left lobe of his liver. There is only a couple of spots in that side and the left side of the liver is small as well. They said it might not be as hard of a recovery for him with this. We are hopeful that is the case.


After all the procedures on done, then Doctor Wahl would like to do a round or two of Chemo more for the main tumor in his Colon. She wants to make sure it stays small like it is. After this, she will have Ty do another round of PET and CT Scans. If things looks really good, she has promised Ty a all around little break from any procedure. We are hopeful that this will happen.


Ty has been a strong guy through all of this. His strength has amazed me. We are also amazed by the love and support of all our friends and family. We are grateful for the phone calls, visits, text messages, emails and those who have come to give our family blessings. These things have meant the most to Ty and I. We feel so blessed from our Heavenly Father on a daily basis for each day we have together. We feel blessed to have a beautiful and healthy daughter who brings joy on the hard days. We are grateful for the spirit that touches each of you to check in on us and keep us in your prayers and fasts. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!


Livestrong and Much Love,


Tyler, Rachel and Isabella