Today was my monthly MRI and neuro-oncologist appointment. I think I’d almost forgotten about it in the days leading up to it. We had said goodbye to Delmar, I caught up with family, I was busy with work. All of these things kept my mind off my appointment, until suddenly I woke up this morning in a bit of panic.

I had my MRI this morning and was left with a two hour wait to get the results. It always feels like such a long wait, but today sort of flew by and suddenly I was in Dr. Trusheim’s office to hear the words, “your scan looks good”.

I didn’t need to hear anything else. It was all that mattered. But I decided that I’m paying enough for the appointment, so I stuck around. :)

He showed me the big empty spot in my head, that was once brain that turned bad. You can see it above — the dark circle on the right about 1/3 the way down. It’s actually the left side of my head, and that big round circle was once brain and is now just fluid… a bit of a miracle, if you ask me. And around that circle, no signs of any change that would cause concern. Phew!

We went on to speak about the recovery period. I’m still in the very early days of recovering from the surgery and radiation. I actually thought it was 6 to 9 months, but according to him, it’s actually 1 to 2 years. He stressed the importance of minimizing stress, getting plenty of rest, and knowing when to say when. And all the while I was realizing I’ve let stress get to me far too much lately with work, my loft, life in general… things that I need to let go of a little. Health is #1.

When it was all done and I walked out the door, I called Mom and Aaron, and for some reason could only cry. I was quick to point out that it was all good news, but it was all I could do.

A combination of talented doctors, hope for good health, maybe even Delmar watching out for me. Good news, in a difficult week.

Sorry for the delay in updating everyone. I was unable to find the disc that had my site files located on it. So I had to spend a few hours today rebuilding some of it and now I can finally let you all know the results.

First, the MRI. I went in last Thursday to have it done. I’m used to some really long MRIs, and this one seemed to only take an hour or so. Probably even less. What a treat! The actual scan was in the morning, and the results with Dr. Trusheim were in the afternoon. As usual, the waiting game was the toughest part. Dr. Trusheim is my Minneapolis doctor, so he wasn’t involved in the surgery or radiation, but still has a good sense of what to expect in seeing tumors post-treatment. And he thinks things are looking good. The tumor didn’t change when they injected me with a highlighting material. And as far as I could tell, it was looking the same as it did last time at MD Anderson. These films are being passed along to the doctors in Houston as well so they can do a better comparison against the last films, but I’ll take Dr. Trusheim’s word as good for now.

The EEG, which was passed along to Dr. Slopis in Houston, had him a little more concerned about the seizures. I got a call on Monday and was told to start taking a new drug, Keppra, along with the Trileptal I’ve been taking already. My first thought was how the number of pills just keeps adding up. I’m now up to 11 pills a day. Five in the morning, five in the evening, plus one allergy pill. Yuck! The new drug is often paired with Trileptal. In fact, I was told that it’s pretty rare for adults in my situation to be taking Trileptal alone… that it is usually paired with another drug. So I started taking Keppra along side it on Monday. It’s too soon to tell anything, but I’m definitely hoping that the seizures come to an end. It’s about time for me to get a break.

Work is keeping me busy at the moment. I’m still getting back into that… trying to fit back into the career world, slowly able to let go of the medical one. And that feels pretty good.

I also wanted to share some news of a friend of mine. I worked with him at my old job. He’s a wonderful guy that has been fighting osteosarcoma — the same rare cancer I had in my hip, leg, and jaw. He’s been treated in Minneapolis for a couple years, and I recently found out he is in Houston at MD Anderson, seeing Dr. Pete Anderson. The news has given me confidence that he’s in the best hands. He went down a couple weeks ago for surgery… here’s his story. Keep him in your thoughts.

I’ll update soon on the success of these pills. I’m off for now. Love you.

Casey