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The First Week at Home

Wed 10 Oct 10

As the astute observer has surely surmised, this surgery recovery has been much more arduous than the previous surgeries. Michele is making progress and has a mixture of good and terrible days.

Today’s problem was a cerebrospinal fluid leak from the surgical area. Cerebrospinal fluid surrounds the brain and spinal cord. A large leak can cause serious problems, hence, a quick trip to see Dr Fox, the surgeon. He evaluated it as a small leak and we will see him again Friday morning for another evaluation.

We met with Dr Chadha, the oncologist, last Wednesday. He has not found a suitable Phase III (experimental) treatment option, and he is not very confident that he will find one that will accept Michele. We have been through all of the appropriate standard FDA approved treatment options and three surgeries and have lived much longer than the median life expectancy. All of that does not make her a good candidate as a study participant. This week, we are not even sure that we would want to participate.

Dr Chadha had a sample of the tumor sent to a lab for a detailed molecular and DNA analysis. Most chemotherapy treatments are most effective against certain molecules or genes found in the various varieties of Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Armed with the analysis, he might be able to find a suitable treatment. (For you medicos, we want to find out, in particular, if the MGMT gene is methylated.)

Our next meeting with Dr Chadha is scheduled for Friday, 03 December, which is right after our next MRI.

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In other news:

Last weekend, Karl, my son, and his wife Liz came in from Little Rock. It was a wonderful visit. I took a mini-vacation and put them to work. They fixed all the meals and did many drudge tasks that we had been putting off for weeks. Liz fixed an apple desert Friday that was so good that Michele had seconds. Near as anyone could remember, that was the first time Michele has ever had seconds on deserts.

Liz also baked peanut butter cookies for Michele. Can you believe that Michele would eat a cookie? Debra D-S, from the Statesman, brought some PB cookies to Michele last month and Michele gobbled up every one of them in two days. This is not the same woman that I married.

This week, Carrie, one of Michele’s dearest friends, who goes all the way back to Hong Kong, will be helping out. She is always a joy to have visit and brightens Michele considerably. We plan to find plenty for her to do.

Michele continues to work on her latest book, with much help from Mary Ann R. and Catherine R. I think that they hope to have the first edited draft finished before Christmas. It has truly been a labor of love by two very good friends.

Next week, Michele thinks that she might be strong enough to begin working out at the gym again. Audrey was working wonders with Michele before the surgery. The improvement was phenomenal.

We don’t expect much to happen until the next MRI and meeting with Dr Chadha, so the blog will be closed down until 05 December or there abouts, you all.

　

RKS