Interim To Start

The fam went to Vandy on Monday to see a surgeon and an Oncologist who specializes in Sarcomas. They felt surgery was not an option and that aggressive chemotherapy was the treatment of choice to make the Sarcoma managable. The Oncologist developed the "recipe" for chemo and related that information to Dad's Oncologist in Knoxville (Dr. Dobbs).

Today, they met with Dobbs to schedule the treatment. Matt will have a heart scan tomorrow to make sure everything is ok there to tolerate treatment and to get a baseline scan since some the meds can adversely affect the heart.

Monday, Matt is scheduled for surgery to put in a port-a-cath to receive the chemotherapy treatments. Chemo will either begin on Dec. 7th or 11th. I always thought that I was going to be the first Fay to have some technology implanted.

The treatments will consist of two different regiments of medication, one administered hopefully next week and another Janurary. The first set of treatments will be two days in a row with follow up treatments in 1 week intervals. The following month, the treatments will be 5 days in a row. There will be at least 6 months worth of treatment. To put this in perspective, Dad had 4 treatments total, post surgery.

Matt is looking forward to spending this weekend with his pals at ETSU. They have lots of fun things planned I hear. Also, two of his professors have helped him be able to complete this semester's work at this point. He'll take an incomplete in the other 2 courses will the ability to complete them within the next 12 months.

Thanks for the continued love and prayers. They are amazing.

Thanksgiving!

We've had an amazing Thanksgiving Weekend at the Fay's house in Clinton, TN!! Matthew came in from ETSU on Wednesday evening. Ian flew in from D.C. on Thursday afternoon. We have laughed, eaten, laughed, slept, laughed, shopped, laughed and eaten some more!!

To explain the picture that Ian has included up top... on Friday morning, the 4 Fays (or should I say "FAYS 4") got up at 4 a.m. to make a treck to HHGregg to buy a TV. So not like the Fay's at all, but we had a blast!! No one was allowed to stay home, it was a complete "Fay Adventure"!

Ian flies back to D.C. today but will be back in a few weeks for Christmas! Whoo hoo!

Tomorrow, Greg, Nancy and Matthew will make a trip to Nashville to see doctors at Vanderbilt Hospital to find out the next step in the treatment for Matthew. We certainly appreciate all of your love and prayers as we continue on this journey.

Between Ian and Nancy (that's me!), we'll keep you all up to speed! God bless each of you. "We thank God for every remembrance of you!" (to quote my good friend, the apostle Paul!)

Go

Who would have though that Matt Fay, a true picture of health, has been diagnosed with Cancer. Last Thursday I'm in the security line of Regan National Airport when my father calls to 'keep me up to speed' as he says. They found out that Matt had a 4 inch mass in his abdomen. I had to struggle to keep it together. Seeing how this was the third cancer diagnosis of my three closest male family members this year, I've learned the word 'compartmentalize'. I called him when I arrived at my destination to tell him I love him. That's about all I know to say.

So I determine that the next 'step' is Monday, where the results of the biopsy will be back. Work on Monday morning was compartmentalized. It was Mom who called. Found out then that it in-fact was malignant and we're waiting for a response from Mayo.

Yesterday they took a PET Scan to get a picture where it was in the body.

Today they met with doctors and determined the type of cancer is Demoplastic which is in the Sarcoma family.

I just got off the phone with Mom, waiting for the results from the PET scan.

As you can see, my comments on these 'steps', I have dwindled down to just facts. My form of compartmentalizing. Between those facts I've been made aware and recieved the support and prayers of an overwhelming amount of friends and family. Those are all appreciated, welcomed, requested, and uplifting.

As the waiting game begins, we will try and make this the central point of information flow. I know it's important to keep your chin up. So chin up.

Ian