Just a Bump in the Road

One of my favorite parts about this journey with cancer was sitting at our booth for the events and handing out wristbands. I absolutely loved visiting with people and hearing their stories. It was definitely one of the highlights. I'm grateful that Kim allowed me to buy the wristbands and dedicate so much time to sitting around and socializing. There was a lot of laughing, crying, and bonding. I'm grateful for all of the support that we were shown during that time and for the continued support we have received. I'm also grateful for the relationships that persist. Not too long ago, Kim received a message on Facebook from someone we didn't really know. He introduced himself and notified us that the wristband his daughter had worn for almost a year had broken. She was devastated and he asked if he could buy another one from us. While driving home from up north one day, we dropped off a bag full of them. I don't remember this girl, but it touched my heart to know ...

Some of you might remember what happened during the Summer... New brain tumors had grown and we tried to get approval for targeted radiation on the new tumors. Unfortunately, because the tumors in my body were out of control, I was declined radiation. This was also about the same time I was told I might have Leptomeningeal disease. In other words, it was a challenging summer. My scan on 2/20 indicated possible disease progression that merited targeted radiation, IF we could get the approval. Fortunately, the approval came! I have an appointment with my radiation oncologist on March 18th, followed by a treatment planning session (where they fit that dreaded mask!), and then an MRI in prep for radiation. We will see how those go! The following day, March 19th, I'll have body CT scans along with another infusion. It will be a couple of busy days, but hopefully everything goes well! This is what the first mask did to my head... And it felt a lot worse than it looks!

On Thursday, February 20th, I headed up north with Kim and Josie in tail. Jo had an MRI of her hip scheduled (She will likely need surgery on her hip come summer time...) and she was tagging along for the day. My last MRI, which was in December, showed that I had lost more tumors, which was excellent news! With five tumors still in my brain, we decided to guess how many would show up this time. We'd had a string of great MRI's and were hopeful this one would be too! Well, after the MRI, I sat down with my MA, Carolyn, to go over the news. When news has been good, she's come in with a big smile on her face. Unfortunately, this time, that wasn't the case. In fact, she expressed some serious concern for what she'd seen. Based on her preliminary viewing of the MRI, it appeared to her that, despite two more tumors disappearing, the other 3 had grown and there was potentially a new tumor. Her opinion was that this was indicative of disease progression, which meant that ...