Thursday, June 28, 2012

MRI Update

Harold had a MRI yesterday as a follow-up to his May 10th gamma knife surgery. The day seemed long as we anticipated the results. Would he be free of new tumors? Would that provide further evidence the immunotherapy treatments are working? How would we feel if there were more tumors? What would that indicate? Would we have reason to celebrate or to brace ourselves for next steps?
  
The answer is somewhere in the middle.

Two very small tumors were found. That’s the bad news. The good news is they are not new (sound familiar). They were tiny specks on the last MRI but were too small to verify they were tumors and not blood vessels. The rest of his brain looks great!

Because the tumors are so small, we have decided to wait a month to do the next gamma knife surgery. This will allow time for any others to show up. Harold will also have a PET scan in the next month which will indicate if the immunotherapy is working on the tumors in the rest of his body.
  
So we’re not celebrating today, but we’re not unduly discouraged either. As much as we wanted a clean scan, new tumors are expected in cases like Harold’s. We've been praying for a miracle and will continue to do so. We had hoped to see evidence of it yesterday . . . 

And perhaps we did. Isn’t it miraculous that a tumor only 2–3 mm in size can be seen and even treated without actually opening up the brain?  That is a modern miracle. Our family has been blessed by many miracles wrought by medicine and by faith. We recognize our Savior's hand in both. That knowledge blesses us with perhaps the greatest miracle of all: peace.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Last Infusion and Hopeful News

Today Harold completed his last immunotherapy infusion and we got some very hopeful news. Here’s some background information so this makes sense:

Harold’s March 28th PET scan revealed that in addition to the tumors in his brain, he has numerous melanoma tumors throughout his body. The largest of these is in his liver. It’s a bummer to have a big tumor in a vital body organ, but because of its location, blood tests can give us an indication of the progression of that tumor.   Lab work at diagnosis showed Harold's liver function was not within normal values. After the first couple of infusions it spiked even further out of range. That could mean two things: the tumor was continuing to grow (bad), or he was experiencing an inflammatory response to the treatment (good).

Before today we didn’t know enough to worry. Lab results can be just a stream of numbers down a page; but when Harold's doctor came in today exclaiming “This is remarkable!” they became something more. They became the first indication that the immunotherapy treatment is working. Harold's liver function is now perfectly normal!  

After the exam and some joking about Harold's "racquetball rash" our Doc smiled and indicated that if he didn’t know about the liver tumor, there would be no reason to suspect one now. We will get confirmation one way or another in about six weeks when Harold has a follow up PET scan.

 We thanked him for the good news and his work on our behalf. He countered by saying, “It’s not me." Then pointing to Harold he continued, "It's that . . . Jones phenomena.” 

Meanwhile we can’t stop grinning. These little victories are so sweet. We know fighting cancer is a long journey. There are no guarantees. But you know what? We choose faith. We have faith in our medical team and faith in a loving Heavenly Father who is aware of our needs. That faith is strengthened by days like today and by your continued faith and prayers in our behalf. We are very grateful.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Update

Today we leave for a road trip our first venture out of the Denver area since Harold’s diagnosis. Squeezed between medical appointments, it’s a chance to enjoy some mountain scenery and see family.  Harold’s back driving so we can share turns at the wheel.
   
At first we were hesitant to venture out for fear of side effects.  So far Harold’s only experienced an annoying but not dangerous rash. A more serious reaction can be treated at any hospital. We will carry Harold’s medical records and our oncologist is only a phone call away.

Harold’s fourth and final infusion is scheduled for June 15th. He will have another PET scan sometime after that. This will be the first chance to see if the treatments are working. Of course we’re hoping the tumors will be gone, but we’re told it would not be bad news if they aren’t. Patients have been scanned after the fourth infusion and all the tumors were still there, only to be rescanned scanned six months later and all the tumors were gone.  Bad news will be if the scan shows new tumor growth.

Harold’s next brain MRI is scheduled for June 27th. Again the brain gets a separate treatment plan. Any new tumors there are subject to gamma knife until systemic treatment stops the growth and spread of cancer throughout the rest of his body. 

Got to run. We’re off for an adventure. Thanks you for your continued faith and prayers. We recognize we are being greatly blessed.