Closing

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All As Planned

0905 Thur 28 Oct 10

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Just talked with Kit Fox.

Everything went as expected and according to the plan.

Michele should be in ICU room number 2 latter this morning and should be there for the next 24 hours.

RKS

Early to Rise

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In OR

0700 28 Oct 2010

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We arrived at the hoispital at 0500 because, as everyone knows, Michele never wants to be late for anything. She also seems to enjoy sitting in waiting rooms, waiting for her scheduled appointment time. Traffic on Mo-Pac expressway was the lightest that I have ever seen and we made it to the hospital in record time--all the better to sit around and wait my dear. As near as she can recollect, this may be the earliest (0330) that Michele has gotten up in her entire life.

Everyone in charge of anything in the operating room came in and quizzed Michele about what was going to happen in the OR and asked her birthday--but her birthday is not until December.

They then wheeled her out at 0700 and said not to expect an update before 0900. Will send an update when I hear something.

RKS

Surgery Prep

Preparing for Surgery

Tuesday, 26 October 2010

We spent most of Tuesday at the hospital, filling in forms and doing pre-surgical stuff for Thursday‘s surgery.
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As part of the process, Michele had a detailed MRI performed. We met with Dr Kit Fox, the surgeon, to discuss the results.

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It appears that the original surgical site is stable and Dr Fox plans to look at it, but not touch it during surgery. With no change in months, he thinks that the contrast area we were worried about is most likely scar tissue.

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{ Editor’s note: Doctors do not like to call cancer “cancer” in an MRI. They like to call cancer “contrast area” or “area of concern.” }

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The new area of concern, a few centimeters (an inch) in front of the prior site has grown at a tremendous rate--perhaps doubling in size during the past few weeks.

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Dr Fox intends to remove the "frontal tip" of Michele’s left temporal lobe--a volume of at least 30 cc but less than 50 cc. A quick scaling of two MRI slices looked like the maximum dimensions of the contrast area were 3cm x 3.5cm x 5 cm. (1.2 inches by 1.4 inches by 2 inches.) If all of her circuits are in the right spots, Dr Fox does not believe that he would remove any critical tissue. He believes that he will be able to remove the entire visible tumor.

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The plan is to have the surgery early Thursday morning and be home Sunday. I plan to post updates on this blog rather than trying to send e-mail’s all day long.

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Best,

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Robert

Very Bad MRI

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Very Bad MRI

Friday 15 October 2010

We received the MRI results today. The results are very bad and indicate rapid growth of the cancer.

Dr Chadha, our oncologist, has recommended surgical removal as soon as possible, which will be on Thursday, 28 October, with the same surgeon, Kit Fox, at the same hospital, St David’s Central (32d Street at Red River) as the two previous surgeries.

On the bright side, Dr Fox said that he expects this surgery to be much simpler than the previous surgeries and does not expect the new surgery to impair any mental functions.

On the dark side, we are out of standard medical (chemotherapy) and radiation treatment options. Dr Chadha will spend the next few weeks looking for an experimental (Phase III) study that might accept Michele for treatment. The most promising GBM Phase III trials tend to cherry pick patients who the researchers think will have the greatest chance of success and survivability. With the treatments and surgeries she has been through the past 20 months, finding a promising study may be difficult.

One good result is that Michele will be off the very harsh Carboplatin chemotherapy, which she has been on for the past three months. We hope that, without the Carboplatin treatments, Michele will regain some the mental capacity recently lost.

　

RKS

Pretty Good MRI

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Pretty Good MRI

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Friday 17 Sep 10

This week’s MRI report indicated no significant change from last month, which in our world is pretty good news.

We plan to continue the current four week treatment schedule and have the next MRI on Thursday 14 October.

RKS

Next MRI

Michele's next MRI is scheduled for Thursday, 16 September.

Results should be posted on Sunday 19 Sep.

RKS

Rough Weekend

Dehydration Monday

　

Michele had an uncomfortable weekend after Friday’s first chemotherapy treatment with Carboplatin.

She experienced gastrointestinal toxicity--vomiting and nausea--which is common (65% occurrence) for Carboplatin.

She was also in bed from Friday afternoon until Monday morning, when we went back to the doctor’s office for an unscheduled office visit and a rehydration infusion. We also got some meds to combat the side effects.

Carboplatin is pretty powerful stuff. It is no wonder that it is only administered once every four weeks. The doc says that the worst is over and that Michele should be feeling better every day, but he still wants to see her again on Friday.

RKS

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