February 18, 2011
This will be a short update as I am very tired after a long
emotionally and physically draining day at the hospital with Josie. The day started with a 9am appointment at the Heme/Onc clinic where they checked
Josie’s blood counts to see if she needed any transfusions. She didn’t end up needing a transfusion, but
had she needed one, she would have needed it before her surgery to replace her
broviac at 2:30pm, thus why we
needed an early appointment.
The Broviac replacement surgery went much longer than
expected and they ran into a few complications as Josie has an occluded vein in
the right side of her chest. They ended
up putting it into a different vein than they usually use, but were able to get
it in. I left the hospital for the day
at 5pm.
After her blood counts came back, Josie’s primary Oncologist
came to speak with me. Earlier in the
week Josie had an MRI and the phone call we received from the Oncologist at
that time was that he was encouraged and saw some shrinkage in the tumor. He told us that the Neuro-Surgeon still
needed to review it and that her case would go to Tumor Board on Friday. We were also encouraged at that time. This time though when I talked to the
Oncologist, it was a bit different story.
The tumor has shrunk on the right side of her brain, so that is evidence
that the chemo has been working. Then he
told me that a different part of the tumor has started growing into the left
side of her brain. I was completely
caught off guard by this news. As I tried
to wrap myself around this info, the oncologist immediately said we should go
take a look at the MRI so that I could see what he was explaining to me. He pulled up the last MRI and the one done
earlier this week and with my untrained eyes for reading such images, I could
even see the growth on the left side of her brain.
The plan at this point is to change Josie’s chemotherapy
treatment plan. She will be receiving a
very potent regimen of 2 new drugs. This
treatment plan is all outpatient, so we will have 2-3 appointments a week at
the Heme/Onc clinic, but will not need to stay at the hospital. Josie will have 2 rounds of this chemotherapy
and then they will do another MRI.
We are still whirling from this news – it was not what we
were hoping for, but know that God is not surprised and still has our lil’ Jo
in His hands.
Still on our knees,
Marc & Darcia
