Blogging in B Minor

I had two appointments this week – one on Tuesday which was a final follow up with my neuro-radiologist and another yesterday with my neuro-oncologist.  On Tuesday, we covered any issues I may be having related to the partial brain radiation that I underwent after surgery.  I haven’t had any issues of course as reported in my blog.  The interesting observation he had based on the string of MRIs that have indicated stablility and no growth is that he has fairly strong level of comfort at this point that there are no grade 4 cells that are part of this tumor.  He also indicated that it is entirely possible that the tumor could be made up of both grade 2 and grade 3 cells but that is purely speculation on his part – only a more invasive biopsy or resection followed by pathology would reveal such a finding.  Typically, grade 3 tumors, or anaplasic gliomas don’t recur or progressive until around year 2 so we’ll just continue the plan.  And again, this is only based on statistics and anyone who has read my blog for any length of time knows exactly where I stand with regard to statistics!  They mean nothing.  I view all of this discussion as extremely positive though.

As far as my appointment with my neuro-oncologist, we mostly talked about a recent issue I have been having with bleeding in my mouth and nose bleeds.  This would all point to a low platelet count, however, my blood work has always been right on target with all levels.  We are doing more blood work early next week that will include additional tests on platelets.  Other than that, I”m doing fine with cycle #7 coming to an end.  5 cycles to go – seems like a long time but when you take in a day at a time it’s really not
bad at all. 

As far as fatigue, I’m feeling that still but not as much.  I’m putting in a bit more time at the office and find that my energy overall is increasing over time. I started a soccer clinic with Aidan on Tuesday nights which is great!  We get out there and practice together and it’s teaching him the fundamentals.  He already had much of this down so far (I used to play competitively) but this is a good primer for the fall when he will start playing in his first organized soccer league.  Keegan is doing great.  He’s 9 months now and growing.  Not quite crawling but he’s flipping open and very vocal.  A fun age for sure. 

Next MRI scheduled for the last week in May and will include a metabolic-type of study.  This will provide some more data than a standard MRI.  If need be, we’ll follow that with a PET scan which I had in March of 2007 that is a very detailed metabolic study of the brain/tumor.

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