Weekend Update

Abby had another MRI last Friday. We got the results on Saturday. It showed that the tumor measures bigger, but it's not new growth. It is measuring bigger because it is swelling as a result of being irritated from the radiation. Luckily, even with the swelling, the tumor has not expanded in her brain cavity or around the important veins. The good news that we got is that the center of the tumor is already starting to necrose (die). When it necroses enough, the tumor will begin to collapse on itself and that is when it will start to shrink.

We had a discussion with the ENTs and oncologist and the consensus is that the very earliest Abby would have surgery to remove the tumor would be 6 weeks after radiation is complete. It will probably be later than that because we want it to shrink to the smallest possible size to make it less invasive. As long as the tumor is up in her brain cavity and around those important veins, she will not have the surgery.

Other than that, our weekend was pretty low key. The hope is that we will be able to leave the hospital the middle of this week. They have transitioned all her medications from IV to her feeding tube, which is one step toward leaving the hospital. We have yet to find out what our living arrangements will be for the next 4 weeks or so, so that will be our next hurdle.

Unfortunately, we are still stuck at 20 radiation treatments remaining. They did not do radiation on Thursday or Friday because CARTI thought it was too close to surgery. Needless to say, we were very surprised when we showed up this morning and all they did was another CT and to make another mask. This was something that could have easily been done last Friday and we were not very happy.

We thank everyone for their continuing prayers and generosity. We are also very thankful that Abby and Alexis were able to spend some quality time together this weekend even though Abby was not feeling that great. She lights up when she sees her sister and we even got to see the chicken dance twice.