Dear Zachary Support Team,

First of all. Thank you. The support of Zachary and our family has been overwhelming both from people that we know and from folks we'll never have the pleasure of meeting. Recommendations, referrals and information has been pouring in from all over the country. Many patterns in relationship to institutions and resources are overlapping and we believe an excellent Plan B is coming together if we need to implement it at a some point. Words really fail us to convey our deep gratitude to all of you.

On Tuesday we met with Dr. Tom Hrisomalos, an infectious disease doctor in Bloomington who is running some additional tests to further exclude the possibility that what is triggering the current 'hot spots' in his body might be some infection or anomaly other than cancer. In this case a positive result would actually be a huge plus. Today we met with Dr. Robertson who is the number one lymphoma expert in the state of Indiana.

"I am totally at a loss." "It is a very perplexing situation." "There is no guru anywhere in the country who will be able to help at this juncture." Basically, this is a very confusing case because the hot spots identified on the PET CT have not been also collaborated in the biopsies and, when he is not sick from the influence of his chemo infusions, Zachary feels good. When asked by Dr. Robertson how Zachary felt, he said he felt great, that he is getting back to running with Dara and except for when they dump chemo into him he feels well. This is the most befuddling part. If you have an aggressive cancer, you usually feel bad.

There are two options Dr. Robertson gave us. Option one is to do another biopsy which involves another 6-8 inch cut in his abdomen, if it's like the last two, and several days in the hospital all of which isn't great or, option two is to wait. The surgical option also has many other potential downsides including the possibility that the biopsy results will, once again, be inconclusive.

Waiting is not something that I feel really comfortable doing but sometimes when you don't know what to do--STOP RUNNING. Part of the problem is that chemo effects the body so radically that tests are not reliable. So, Zachary has decided to wait for 6-8 weeks and then have another PET scan done and see what it says.

I'd love to end this e-mail with a witty line from a song, but I'm totally at a loss. I am left with a sense that I need to trust in a time when I want assurances that my dear child is healing. Part of growing up is coming to peace with the fact that no body has any assurances that they will be here tomorrow--not Zachary or me.

Love,

Ann