Hi all -- Thanks again for the replies and support. 

I would agree Tina, that describes it perfectly. I felt like I had a realistic outlook and had wrapped my head around what the likely outcomes could be and had "the" plan if he was lung metastasis free (radiographically) and "the" plan if he had lung mets. This was not part of any of my plans so to speak. 

Jerry -- Luckily he is such a trouper and handled everything well. He was a little groggy Wednesday night and Thursday night (after anesthesias) and we put him on cerenia which we don't usually do after chemo since he'd had two anesthesias + chemo and Friday morning he was back to being himself. 

After discussions with some additional oncologists based on some of their clinical impressions and unpublished research data, tentatively, if he is still doing well he will get carboplatin in 3 weeks +/- radiation, and in 3 more weeks radiation followed by starting an osteosarcoma vaccine a couple days later. Potentially, radiating the tumor followed by inducing an immunologic response *might* help stall it out. We understand that there is no tried and true data ... but when you fall in the <5% group, that sort of goes out the window. 

But ultimately it will rely on how he is doing clinically. Somewhere in there we will also start bisphosphonates as well I think and have loosely discussed metronomic chemo ... but our oncologist is worried he is already getting a lot and handling it well, so at what point do you risk tipping over the apple cart so to speak. Or as she likes to say "don't kill the dog while trying to kill the cancer." 

We just have to take and appreciate each day for what it is and realize that at this point, we can't rely on data or studies to predict what to expect. 

I thought I would provide a little update in case someone else finds themselves in similar shoes - maybe it will give them something to consider with their oncologist. 

After consulting with several oncologists at other universities we have decided to add losartan to the carboplatin and continue with radiation therapy as needed and monitoring for other metastases. Losartan is traditionally an anti-hypertensive medication that, when used at high doses may have anti-vegf (from what I understand a growth factor that tumors use to make new/more blood vessels) properties. Grover is already on a different medication for systemic hypertension (unrelated and pre-existing) so the switch seemed intuitive for us and after asking around to other places that have used it in clinical trails no adverse effects were reported with that medication.  

It has been a painstaking decision for me, but at this time we have decided against using the Aratana Her2/Neu vaccine. We were not eligible for the Univ. of PA vaccine clinical trial but could have had off-trial access to the Aratana version of the vaccine. All along this had been my plan, but I have become increasingly uncomfortable with the lack of safety data the company is willing to share and recently heard that one of the clinical trial sites pulled out for the same reason as well. Psychologically, this has been an incredibly hard decision for me - I wanted to do EVERYTHING for him, but a company that wouldn't share their basic safety data was making me increasingly uncomfortable. I hope it's the right decision and who knows maybe we will change our minds at the end of the day. 

I have to say though that I have been overwhelmed by the kind responses that I have received from osteosarcoma researchers at other universities - those people do amazing work and couldn't have been more generous with their time and knowledge. 

In the mean time Grover says "what's a met?" and continues to love life every single day.