Amos Ross Updates

Dear friends and family,

First let me say that we continue to be grateful for your prayers, notes of encouragement, and check-ins with our family over the last few weeks. A lot has happened. But actually little of it had to do with medical treatment. Practically, this has meant the last few weeks have felt “normal” for the family, including a well-needed week at the beach.

At the same time, Kelli and I have been in regular contact with Amos’s medical team at Duke, and the team has in turn been soliciting counsel from a wide network of specialists. As of last week, after quite a bit of communication among them and us, everyone has come to a consensus on what to do. (The fact that everyone agrees is itself a major blessing.)

We do not have the exact date locked in yet, but some time this month Amos will undergo a procedure called gamma knife. This procedure is not traditional brain surgery. It is a stereotactic radiosurgery; basically a supercharged laser that “zaps” the treatment area.

The amazing thing about gamma knife is that there is no incision, no cutting anything open at all. It should take less than an hour and Amos will be awake almost the entire time. In fact, it is done as an outpatient procedure, which means no overnight stay. According to the team who will do the procedure, it isn’t uncommon for adults who undergo gamma knife surgery to go back to work the next day. You can watch a short (and rather droll) video about how it works here.

After Amos has this procedure, he will receive two drugs. One will help reduce inflammation in the brain and will be given by infusion two or three times over the following months. The other is a drug called metformin. Although metformin is mostly used for diabetes, it is also being used in a clinical trial for managing Amos’s very specific type of cancer. This metformin trial use is what we are doing for Amos in lieu of traditional radiation or chemotherapy. The good news about these two drugs is that they should have limited side effects, if any at all.

Hard to believe, isn’t it? We feel the same way.

When we received the news of this recurrence, treatment options were frankly rather grim. But now we are looking at a set of interventions that will allow Amos and our family to have a pretty normal summer, at least by comparison with brain surgery and chemo. To say that we are thankful feels like a dramatic understatement.

We have been praying for clarity and peace, and the Lord has provided it. Amos continues to be cool as a cucumber about it all. He was certainly glad to hear that he’s not having traditional brain surgery! A few days ago, I was explaining to Amos that part of gamma knife is having a frame screwed into your skull (see video.) He absorbed that for a moment, shrugged, and said, “I’ve been through worse.”

As I said, the exact details need to be ironed out. This procedure will take place in California, so we need to make a number of arrangements. But it’s going to happen some time in the next three weeks or less. Please pray for logistics to come together well. We will be in touch once we have more to share.

The Ross Family

Our help is in the name of the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth. (Ps. 124:8)