Hello friends and family,
Yesterday, Dec. 19, I had my second Gamma Knife procedure. Generally, it went well. I was the only patient they treated yesterday and was finished and riding out of the KMC parking lot at 1:30 P.M. Again, the staff in Gamma Knife and radiology is great. For those of you who are Centerville Noon Optimists you will be interested that one of the staff members has known Karl Frydryk since first grade. She says he is smart and helped her with her math. She also gave me his grade school nickname!
That was the fun part. The results of the procedure were not perfect. The more precise MRI yesterday morning showed another cancer spot they were not able to treat because of the position of the frame on my head and there were some other streaks they weren't sure whether they were of concern or were blood vessels. The nurse Diane told Roy I have a lot of blood vessels in my head - not sure what that means!
The follow-up will be another MRI in 6 weeks to see if the three spots "zapped" yesterday are going away and to see if these new findings are growing.
In the meantime, I guess I will need to be really busy! That shouldn't be too difficult with closing down the tree lot, celebrating the holidays, getting ready for Optimist Oratoricals and January financial reports, doing income tax and SKIING!
Have a Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Your prayers and good thoughts are wonderful,
Margaret
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Saturday, December 15, 2007
The New Plan
Hello everyone,
The results are in and the new plan is made - not how I expected to be celebrating Christmas and the New Year awhile back, but happy it is as good as it is.
The PET scan from last week came back with very good news - even better results than in September. Dr. Calvo seemed quite pleased - said something like, "This is as good as it gets." There were some options, but what he strongly recommended since this is an incurable disease is that we try to keep it inactive by continuing to do chemo, but on a once every four week schedule and with just one chemo drug called Alimta plus the Avastin which is targeted therapy for cutting off the blood supply to the tumor. The impression I got is that Alimta has lighter side effects than the two I have been taking. He also said to wait until late January to begin the new treatment.
The MRI of the brain did show two and possibly three new "dots". The doctors all recommended whole brain radiation first, but said I may have another Gamma knife if that is my choice and it is. The Gamma knife is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 19. If more spots show up later, I will probably need to have the whole brain radiation.
We are planning to go to Montana in January to ski at Big Sky and may be able to go to Utah in February. Ryan Kaspitzke has called and said he will be home then and we are welcome. It would be good to see him and "Ski Utah!"
I hope all of you have a great holiday and thanks as always for the continuing prayers and positive thought. I really believe they help!
Margaret
The results are in and the new plan is made - not how I expected to be celebrating Christmas and the New Year awhile back, but happy it is as good as it is.
The PET scan from last week came back with very good news - even better results than in September. Dr. Calvo seemed quite pleased - said something like, "This is as good as it gets." There were some options, but what he strongly recommended since this is an incurable disease is that we try to keep it inactive by continuing to do chemo, but on a once every four week schedule and with just one chemo drug called Alimta plus the Avastin which is targeted therapy for cutting off the blood supply to the tumor. The impression I got is that Alimta has lighter side effects than the two I have been taking. He also said to wait until late January to begin the new treatment.
The MRI of the brain did show two and possibly three new "dots". The doctors all recommended whole brain radiation first, but said I may have another Gamma knife if that is my choice and it is. The Gamma knife is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 19. If more spots show up later, I will probably need to have the whole brain radiation.
We are planning to go to Montana in January to ski at Big Sky and may be able to go to Utah in February. Ryan Kaspitzke has called and said he will be home then and we are welcome. It would be good to see him and "Ski Utah!"
I hope all of you have a great holiday and thanks as always for the continuing prayers and positive thought. I really believe they help!
Margaret
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Anxious wait for results
Hello friends and family,
I am not sure where the time has gone since my last post, but it might be hours and hours of tree lot preparation, helping to set up the lot, taking delivery of 1085 trees and working at the lot. I am already 3 months into being president of the Presidents Club of Dayton with a meeting coming up Monday. Next week I will begin making visits to the middle schools to promote the Optimist Oratorical contests. Those contests are in February, but that is not far away.
We enjoyed having Annabelle and Jim here for the Thanksgiving weekend. Roy brought Annabelle to the cancer center when I was there for chemo and she got to see how the tubes and bags were attached and how I can walk around with my pole. She had been very curious about all of that.
The weekend ended on a bittersweet note as Jim and Annabelle said good-by to their kittycat Chloe. Chloe has been diagnosed with an incurable, untreatable cancer and may live a few more days or weeks - maybe months - it depends on how long she continues to eat and stay comfortable with pain medication. We are thankful she stayed relatively normal for Annabelle and Jim to see her last weekend.
Yesterday was the last day of chemo of the 6th cycle which Annabelle had called the "happiest day of my life." Thursday was the brain MRI - will get results from Dr Taha on Monday afternoon - and the PET scan is scheduled for next Monday, Dec. 10. I will get results from Dr. Calvo on Tuesday morning and plan what treatment is needed next. It may be a break from chemo or a lighter schedule or ???
In the meantime, being an Optimist, I made an airline reservation for our ski trip to Montana in January including an overnight stay in Seattle if everything works out with the airline. That's kind of exciting since neither Roy nor I have been to Seattle.
Thanks to all of you for your continuing prayers and good thoughts. They are very appreciated and reassuring.
Happy Holidays,
Margaret
I am not sure where the time has gone since my last post, but it might be hours and hours of tree lot preparation, helping to set up the lot, taking delivery of 1085 trees and working at the lot. I am already 3 months into being president of the Presidents Club of Dayton with a meeting coming up Monday. Next week I will begin making visits to the middle schools to promote the Optimist Oratorical contests. Those contests are in February, but that is not far away.
We enjoyed having Annabelle and Jim here for the Thanksgiving weekend. Roy brought Annabelle to the cancer center when I was there for chemo and she got to see how the tubes and bags were attached and how I can walk around with my pole. She had been very curious about all of that.
The weekend ended on a bittersweet note as Jim and Annabelle said good-by to their kittycat Chloe. Chloe has been diagnosed with an incurable, untreatable cancer and may live a few more days or weeks - maybe months - it depends on how long she continues to eat and stay comfortable with pain medication. We are thankful she stayed relatively normal for Annabelle and Jim to see her last weekend.
Yesterday was the last day of chemo of the 6th cycle which Annabelle had called the "happiest day of my life." Thursday was the brain MRI - will get results from Dr Taha on Monday afternoon - and the PET scan is scheduled for next Monday, Dec. 10. I will get results from Dr. Calvo on Tuesday morning and plan what treatment is needed next. It may be a break from chemo or a lighter schedule or ???
In the meantime, being an Optimist, I made an airline reservation for our ski trip to Montana in January including an overnight stay in Seattle if everything works out with the airline. That's kind of exciting since neither Roy nor I have been to Seattle.
Thanks to all of you for your continuing prayers and good thoughts. They are very appreciated and reassuring.
Happy Holidays,
Margaret
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