Party of four

Party of four

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Frozen in Durham

Hello friends,

We just made it our of Durham after a flight cancellation and multiple delays.  The "possible wintry mix" turned into all day snowfall and made travel a little more complicated than we had planned.  But it was pretty and we enjoyed a little adventure.

We just celebrated 2 years since Reyn's surgery and today was a regular follow up appointment.   As usual we made our way over to Duke this morning for Reyn's MRI, followed by doctors appointment.    At the doctor's appointment they informed us that they have changed their protocols for MRIs and now take 44 "cuts" or images of the brain as opposed to the previous 27 images we were accustomed to seeing.  If you can imagine slicing vegetables, an MRI slices the image in multiple sections.  With the new 44 cut image the neuro oncologist saw a slight increase in size of Reyn's tumor near the top of the brain.  (Right frontal lobe). At this point she said it could be a couple of things:
1.  It has grown slightly
2.  This could be a bit of a false alarm now that the images are different and offer more cuts of the image

So we can do 2 things:
1.  Wait and see if this is just a red herring
2.  Begin a small dose of oral chemo to stabilize and maybe even shrink the tumor.

If reyn decides to start Temodar (oral chemo) he will take one capsule by mouth each day.  It is a very small dose and has limited side effects.  Most likely fatigue being the main one.  The good news is that his tumor type responds extremely well to Temodar so he could see improvement in the size of the tumor.

We will definitely go back in 10 weeks for a check up so we ask for specific prayers.

Wisdom to make the right decision regarding his treatment.
If he decides to start Temodar that negative effects will be minimal.
If we decide to wait and see, then prayer for the images to stabilize or shrink on their own.


We appreciate and covet all of your prayers.  Thanks for checking in on us.

Love,
The Connellys 






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