Update! : News on Darrin
wdaytonco April 4th, 2008
Hello Everyone, Thank you for your continued support of Darrin and his family. I wanted to take a few minutes to give a quick update on Darrin, Katee and the rest of the family.
As you know, Katee has been pronounced “Cancer Free” after her last checkup. This news is a welcome blessing for the family and Darrin, Kim, Aimee and Katee are all very happy about the success of Katee’s treatments. Katee is already talking about going back to college soon!Aimee graduates this May from high school, and she intends to go to college next fall. Aimee and Katee may be attending the same college together next fall, but I’m not sure where – I think it’s UNC???Kim is holding the family together and is remarkable for how she has shown such strength during the course of these events.The I.T. team met with Darrin’s family for dinner at his our last week. It was great to be able to visit with Darrin, Kim and their daughters and to experience Darrin’s great sense of humor despite all that he is going through. We all felt truly blessed to have been able to spend time with Darrin, as we really miss seeing him at the office.As you may or may not know – Darrin’s cancer has spread to many other parts of his body, including his brain. He now has large tumors in his brain, that are giving him seizures. Darrin had a small seizure while we were visiting him. The seizures are mild, and only last a minute or so. Last week, Darrin went into the hospital for the “Gamma Knife” treatment. The Gamma Knife is a gamma-ray device that treats individuals with tumors or masses that would other wise be very difficult to physically operate on. This device ”zaps” the tumor using precise gamma radiation. For Darrin, because the tumors in his brain are causing seizures, problems with walking and vision problems, the Gamma Knife treatment was focused on quality of life, since the tumor cannot be removed completely and continues to grow so rapidly.Well, Darrin had the procedure and the doctors found out that the tumor in his brain has grown even LARGER, than when they imaged it for pre-treatment planning a couple of weeks before! So the doctors treated what they could for Darrin but could not zap all of it.Darrin also has a tumor which is the size of a large grapefruit, pressing out of his back. This tumor is wrapped around his lungs and the doctors cannot operate on it, since it would damage more of his lung tissue (and Darrin’s already had surgeries on his lungs that have reduced their capacity.) The cancer in Darrin’s lungs has continued to grow, and Darrin is having significant problems breathing. Darrin received radiation treatment for the cancer that has spread to his hips and that helped some with him being able to get around, but the brain tumors are causing stability problems.So that’s the latest update on Darrin. More to come…….WGD