Hang On!!!

Dwayne and I met with Dr. Cheng, the local oncologist this morning. He had not seen Dwayne since mid July. He was pleased that his speech so much better. He went though the plan for the next chemo. We should have a start date by next week. There will be four months of the two new drugs and then another MRI. He also said they would work the chemo around the rehab schedule, so Dwayne does not have to drop that.

As we were finishing, I asked him about the MRI report. What did "significant reductions" mean? Well, he went through the three page report with us. The swelling is decreased in his brain. Three of the lesions have shrunk, one that was 10x10mm is now 1.3mm! Another that was 5cm in March is completely gone! Seven others they did not even comment on because they are no longer there!!!

We appreciate the prayers so much, thank you just does not seem adequate. Hopefully the new chemo will give a complete remission.

Good News!

We made it through the past few days. They have been anxious ones at times. The MRI was done on Monday afternoon. We went up to the UCLA specialist on Tuesday morning. We got there an hour early, we had allowed two hours to get there and made it in a little over an hour.  The traffic was great, not sure how I would have been had we gotten struck.

The doctor was great. He spent about an hour and a half with us. Asked some good questions, and Dwayne did well with the neurological part of the exam. But the MRI report did not get up to him on Monday afternoon like it was supposed to. He looked at all of Dwayne's MRIs. We had hand carried them, but did not comment on them. He agreed with what the two other oncologists have said and we'll see Dr. Cheng (the local oncologist) on Tuesday for the next step. Will be two new chemo drugs. The goal is to get a complete remission on this.

This afternoon the nurse called from Dr. Cheng's office with the MRI results. It shows "SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION" with the lesions! This was great to hear!

Thank  all of you for your prayers! We are headed in a good direction.

Back to Boot Camp!

Yesterday was a big step forward! Dwayne went back to the rehab unit for their outpatient program. This is where he was an inpatient in May. He will now go three mornings a week for their day program. The doctors and therapist think he is strong enough to be able to do the three hours sessions. He actually got approved three weeks ago, but we had to wait for an opening. The home speech and physical therapists who had working with him fought the insurance company to be able to keep coming until he got into the day program. He has made a lot of progress in the last month. Very grateful to them!

Next Monday and Tuesday will be important days. On Monday he will have the first MRI since May. I am a little apprehensive. Even if it shows all the lesions are gone most likely there will be more chemo. His local oncologist and the neuro-onclogist at UCLA have said because this is so rare and they know it is aggressive, they want to do more treatment. The local doctor said he has only seen it twice in 13 years of practice. The neuro-onclogist said that of the hundreds of people that they see a year, only about 5% are this type. So they both wanted Dwayne seen by a lymphoma specialist. This will be on Tuesday morning at UCLA.

Thanks for all the prayers, encouragement and other practical things you have done for us over the past four months!