Update

Radiation is done!  Boy, that was a long six weeks.  It is so nice to not have a single doctor appointment today!  

The plan:  On June 10th he will have another MRI and we will get the results on the 11th.  After that he will have another MRI at least every three months.  We are all praying that the tumor doesn't come back and we can be done with that stage of his condition.

He has his appointment with the GI doctor on the 10th so we will then find out when his next colonoscopy is.  Hopefully the polyps won't be too bad and we can avoid the colectomy for as long as possible.

This is the mask that he had to wear for all his treatments.  His doctor colored Shaggy on it.  The nurses were so nice.  They gave him a treat almost every day and also gave him a Wii game when he was done.  They spoiled Rebecca as well.  Rebecca is very happy to not have to go to the "zapping" doctor anymore.

His neck is pretty raw like a bad sunburn, but it isn't bothering him too much.  We just keep putting aloe on it.  He will be glad to have his hair grow back to try and hide everything.

Radiation is going well

Jacob is doing really well with the radiation.  He is a bit tired, but not too bad.  Also his neck and head where they are doing the radiation feel a little like he has a sunburn there.
He is having to miss history everyday, but the teacher is working with us.  If he has to take it again next year it doesn't really matter.
Becca is getting a little tired of going to doctors, but I got her a bag with things to do in it and that seems to be working.  She was very happy, though, on Friday when the girls were home from school and she got to stay home with them and not go to the "zapping" doctor!
Thanks for all the prayers.  Hopefully after this is done we can be done with all the tumor stuff.

What's next

  Well, Jacob's surgery went great.  Before they took him back, the doctor told us all the plans of how they were going to have enough tissue after removing the tumor to sew Jacob back up.  They were going to either take muscle from him shoulder or leg in order to cover the skull.  This would require microsurgery to get blood to the skin graft and it was going to be a big process.
  When the surgeon talked to us afterwards, he told us that the tumor had actually stretched the skin out in that area so they were able to move a muscle over a bit in his neck and use the skin already there to sew him up.  The doctor said that it was the best possible scenario and seemed rather pleasantly surprised.  The power of the Priesthood is amazing.
  They put in a small titanium plate where the tumor punched through the skull, but it did not get through the outer membrane of the brain.  The doctors are as sure as they can be that they got it all out.

It was so great to have Scott's parents come help out.  There's no way we could have gotten though this without them.

 Jacob loved his pet visit.  

He didn't really want me to put a picture of his cuts on facebook, but I knew you would be interested, so I put them here.  I hope he doesn't mind too much.

   Now, what comes next?  Well, since the chemo didn't work, they don't want to put him back on that.  They are going to do radiation instead.  They didn't want to start with that because of the close proximity to the brain, but they now feel that it is the best choice.  His new radiation doctor (yes, yet another doctor to add to the list) says that there is less than 5% chance that it could hurt his brain, and we need to do something to keep this tumor from coming back.
  We are going to start radiation next Wednesday and it will be every week day for six weeks.  I thought I was going to the doctor a lot before!  We are going to try and rearrange his schedule at school to have PE first period since he isn't even going into the gym right now.  Then we can just have him do the radiation then.  I hope that works out because he can't miss every day of class for a month and a half!
   Well, I think that gets everyone up to date.  Thanks for your prayers.

Latest MRI results

Jacob had an MRI on Friday and then a CT Scan this morning.  The MRI showed that the desmoid tumor is still growing.  (We already had a good idea of this because it felt bigger and it has been hurting him more lately.)  Since the MRI doesn't show bone very well, they had him do a CT Scan.  That showed that the tumor has eroded the bone completely in some areas and is now pushing on his brain.  It doesn't appear to have penetrated the brain yet, but they don't know for sure.
The doctors want to remove it.  He is going to be going into surgery next week.  I don't have the exact date yet, but I will let you know.

Funny Story

On Elizabeth's first day of school, Scott got a very interesting call from the nurse.  Her voice was filled with trepidation when she told Scott that Elizabeth got hurt at school.  Apparently a little boy punched Elizabeth at recess.  Then she went on to explain that he was playing a game in which he intended punch his hand in front of Elizabeth's face, but he forgot to put his hand up and got Elizabeth right in the nose. Once Scott started laughing hysterically, the nurse didn't feel so bad anymore. :-)  Can you imagine that poor nurse having to call a little girl's dad on the first day of school to let him know his 2nd grader got punched in the nose?!  That poor nurse.  She assured Scott that the little boy was taken aside and told why that was not an appropriate game to play.
Other than that things in our new place are great.  Sarah has a friend in her class that lives two doors down from us.  The bus stop is right on the corner of our street so I don't have to pick up the kids from school.  In the afternoon the kids go out to the front yard and play with all the neighbor kids.  The ward seems to fit us well with lots of families our age.  I love our house, but Scott doesn't like the small garage.
Thanks for all your prayers.  It is great to have our family together again.