Bad news/Good news

December 14th- Routine MRI(scheduled every 3months)
December 15th- Follow-up appt. with Dr. Hudgins, the neurosurgeon, to review the results of the MRI...Bad news. One of the very small tumors in Patrick's brain is now larger. Also, there is tumor thickening in the ventricles of his brain- if the canal between the ventricles gets too thickened with tumor growth, Patrick would need a shunt. There also is thickening of tumor matter all along the spine/spinal cord. Dr. Hudgin's didn't have any good ideas about what to do- just follow-up in 2 months. Needless to say, Ralph and I are very glad that we have an appt. with a neurosurgeon at the Cleveland Clinic in a few weeks.
December 16th- Scheduled appt. with Dr. Hord. Dr. Hord goes over the MRI results in great detail. He has heard about a chemotherapy drug called Temozolomide which is possibly effective for tumors of the brain- generally chemo drugs do not work for tumors of the brain. He will look into this possibility. In the meantime, he will go on the internet and check with his colleagues for possible treatments. He starts the paperwork for our appt. at the Cleveland Clinic.
December 17th- Dr. Hord calls both Patrick and Ralph and leaves messages on their cell-phones. Patrick is working at the coffee cart at the hospital and Ralph is working in the Pharmacy. Ralph stops at the coffe cart to see Patrick and they compare phone calls. They meet up with Dr. Hord and he tells them that he has found a research study for ependymomas of the brain and spinal cord. One of the drugs they are using is Temozolomide! Now we can count on the Insurance to probably cover the cost of the drug. The research study was started at MD Anderson Hospital in Texas- a well-known cancer research hospital. Eight other medical centers are conducting this research. Dr.Hord finds the closest one to us is in Pittsburgh- just under 2hrs away. We start making phone calls on Monday. Ralph continues to make phone calls on Tues and Wed. By Wednesday afternoon we have an appt. with Dr. Lierberman at the University of Pittsburgh-this Thursday-Dec.30th at 9am. We will drive to Pittsburgh Wed. afternoon, find the medical center, then stay at the hotel near the hospital.
I am still trying to process everything that has happened...Patrick is doing well. He wrote a blog on Sat. the 18th. You can read it by following the link on his facebook site or you can go to:psalmtwentythreesix.blogspot.com.
We thank and praise God for working through Dr. Hord to help us find this study. We are also thankful for wonderful co-worker's and bosses who are helping us with time off from work.
Thank-you for your continued prayers and support,
Ralph and Priscilla
PS- We spent Christmas eve and part of Christmas in the hospital. Patrick had a severe headache, numbness in his left hand, a short period of slurred speech, and nausea- which turned into continued vomiting for about 4 hours. The CT scan showed no changes in the brain, so they think he probably had a very severe migraine- no doubt aggravated by the nasty tumor cells in his brain!
We had a very nice belated Christmas on Sunday.