Michael Schriner

May 27th 9:30 am
Things are moving fast this morning. We got a call from a couple different departments handling Michael's
treatments. We are meeting with the Oncologist, Dr. Pan at 10:30 this morning and then we are going in for
surgery at 2:00 today. They will do the stint procedure later today and Michael will have to stay in over night for
observation. Michael is worried about the surgery so maybe it is a good thing that this is happening so quickly and
not giving him much time to think. Wow...a lot to do and then again a lot of it on our part is just sitting by and
waiting.

12:30 pm
Dr. Pan, the Oncologist, has prescribed very high dosages of chemo for Michael. He will likely begin on
Wednesday. I will keep you posted on that. It involves him going into the hospital for 5 days for straight chemo
and then coming home for 2 weeks. This will be repeated 4 times. We are looking at about 3 months of that.
Then they will re-evaluate the situation for surgery.

He told Michael that he will probably never be able to have children as they will remove the testicle tht has the
tumor and the other will be damaged from the chemo. There were also a lot of side effects that are pretty harsh.
Pray that as Michael starts to go through this he can keep up his spirits and handle the side effects ok.

Michael goes into the hospital in another hour. They are going to keep him in there over night. We can't have our
cell phones on in there, but leave us messages if you like. My cell is 650-814-8511. Chris' is 650-861-1447. He
will be at Santa Clara Kaiser. I'll update this when I get home tonight and let you know how he did.

May 28th 12:08 am
We just got home...it's been a long day. We left Michael at 8:30 pm when visiting hours were over, but still had live fish to pick up at
the airport and get into the aquariums at the store. Michael did good during the procedure. I got corrected a couple of times today...it
wasn't a surgery...it was a procedure. Instead of doing the stint in the kidney, they decided it was better to do a tube inserted into the
kidney and then draining it out his back into a collection bag. This tube will have to be replaced every two months. That freaked out
Michael and I a bit...Then they told us that he would not be put to sleep during the procedure. That really freaked us both out. He got
so worried the sweat was dripping off his hands. The Dr. doing the procedure had to tell us all the legal ease about the worst things
that could happen and then I was crying...sometimes it is just so overwhelming.

Michael also had a biopsy of the tumor in his body cavity done at the same time. They did this by poking some needles through the
stomach/groin area and taking samples of the tumor. These will be sent to pathology, whom we should hear from hopefully by
Tuesday. They want to know the exact type of cancer we are dealing with as some have better recovery rates than others.

Michael had a friend visit and was on the phone with his girlfriend when we left. His spirits were much higher and he was joking
around about liking all the drugs given to him during the procedure. I had left the room and he asked Chris if I was ok and then later
when Chris left the room, he asked me if dad was ok. I was blown away when Chris told me that. I am so impressed with how he is
handling this right now and I am very proud of him...

We are hopefully picking him up around 11:00 am today to bring him home. If anyone wants to call him...feel free. I'll update again
after we get him home and settled. We have to learn how to change that collection bag and to clean the area around the insertion of
the tube. Fun...He's happy that the bag can be hidden by strapping it to his leg under his pants or shorts...

	Week 1- May 26-30

The Dr. called late this afternoon. He consulted with several Dr.s and they agree that they should begin by doing surgery to install a stint in the kidney that is being compressed. This will allow the kidney to function properly while chemo is being done. After they get the stint in, maybe as soon as tomorrow, then they will begin 4 rounds of chemo. They will give him time to recover between each of the four sets. We don't know yet how many times a round is, but think probably 3 or 4 treatments weekly. After the four rounds, they will give him another CT-scan to see if the tumor is shrinking. The hope is that the tumor with shrink and maybe even disappear. They also hope that the first rounds of chemo will relieve some of the pressure on the kidney and that the lesions on the lungs and liver will go away. They will probably do surgery after the 4 rounds of chemo to remove the primary tumor in the testicle. There would then be more chemo after that. Michael is getting apprehensive about the surgeries and chemo. Please pray for peace for him. He is such a good boy and we are so proud of him. He is also having to drink Ensure shakes and eat things like yogurt. He has to eat several times a day as he isn't able to eat very much volume wise. We have to remind him constantly to eat and drink as he doesn't feel hungry. To me, it will be a good sign when he gets hungry again. He has lost a lot of weight which is one reason we took him to the Dr. to begin with.

		May 29th 10:30 AM We didn't update last night because Erin & Dan came over and had dinner with us. I was too tired when we finished to do the page. Sorry. We didn't get home from the hospital until after 3:00 because Michael was having some problems with feeling sick. They didn't want him to go home until he was feeling better. He is having a hard time adjusting to the tube. He feels like he can't move or it will pull out. I told him, I'm pretty sure it's fairly secure as some people have to live with this their entire life. He will have to get used to it. He is taking vicadin because his back is really sore. As far as what's next, we are waiting for a pathology report on the biopsy. They think Tuesday as this is a long weekend. The Oncologist talked about starting chemo on Wednesday as long as he gets that report. So, I won't update again until we hear from him and see what is going to happen next. Michael is home and talking on the phone with friends and family off and on if you want to call or visit. His cell phone number is 650-861-1109.