Back to posting again...

Hi all,

I see my last post was January 2009... We've had a good run however good runs don't last forever. I will do my best to give the 'readers digest' version of the past few months. As many of you know, I'm not the best at telling short stories. I am also going to update pictures for those of you who haven't seen us in a bit. (Bare with me, not sure I remember all the fancy website coding).

Rewind a few months.... In the fall of 2010, Todd started complaining of feeling 'woozy' again. I encouraged him to call for a scan. He fussed at me for a few weeks saying he didn't have time and blah blah blah... ya know, excuses excuses. Eventually he made it there. They called me to give me the results and my heart sunk. They told me the tumor had 'changed." What does that mean? What do we do? Who do we call?

I started calling all his old physicians and soon we realized we weren't in too good of a spot. No one really knew where to send us or who could help us so... back to the drawing board. We ended up at Vanderbilt seeing a Neuro-surgeon who was recommended by a friend. When we got there, we realized that he couldn't help Todd but he told us to get a 'Captain' of our ship and he recommended Paul Moots. We were lucky to leave with an appointment with Dr. Moots and from this day forward the CAPTAIN phrase has been used, in all aspects, LOL.

We met with Dr. Moots in November and he discussed the VERY limited options however there were a few options! The most encouraging option was to start with Temodar, a lower does chemo pill. The plan was to start the Temodar and stay on it for at least 12 months and monitor Todd every 3 months. GREAT we have a plan! We had to find on Oncologist here in town and we chose Dr. Bruce Avery... Not sure you will ever meet a man quite as unique as him, LOL. He is absolutely wonderful and absolutely quirky in his dress-plaids, stripes, solids and everything in between. Guess what? He wears them all together, LOL. Ok, back on track... Dr. Avery hooked Todd up with an arsenal of prescriptions. I spent the next day running around town getting our house CHEMO ready. We have more hand sanitizer, tissues and face masks then you can imagine! Todd started his first round of chemo on Christmas Eve and he did great! Almost seemed easy (easy for me to say.) The first round/week, every time he moved in bed I thought he was getting sick. He never once was sick...

Ok so I can now fast forward... We decided with all this hoopla going on that we were going to go on a cruise in January 2011 to 'get away.' Todd and I have NEVER been on a trip without Tyler and we thought this would be a great time to leave life behind and focus on the future. The cruise started out as the 2 of us, moved to 4 of us and when it was all over there were 6 of us... Greg (Todd's brother), Ashley (girlfriend) and Ken/Christy (across the street neighbors) joined us and boy oh boy, we had a blast! In the end, this trip was just what we needed. I knew deep down that this year of chemo would be a challenging year.

Me and Todd

Ken and Christy

The 4 of us playing bingo... we didn't win

The 'Girls'

Greg and Ashley

Back to life and reality, Todd started his chemo the next day back from the cruise. Still all is going well but we've been noticing some slight mobility issues. His leg seems to be getting weaker and his arm is starting to give him problems. Yikes, another issue! I made a few phone calls and soon Todd had a Physical Therapist (another member of our ship). PT seems to be going well and helping with the muscles. We also acquired a handicap pass which I won't admit out loud but it's kind of handy (NO, i don't use it to run errands.) I did have a small breakdown on my way to get it because it was a harsh reality of life.

Now to present month. Thank goodness, huh? Todd had a scan on March 14. They called us with the update the next day and again.. my heart sunk. The tumor has grown at least 1mm and they advised us to wait and see what Vandy says on the 21st. We knew something wasn't 'right' since we've seen a downward turn in the last month. This past Tuesday, March 21 was his Vandy visit. All 3 of us made the 3 hour trip to hear the results. Tyler has been a trooper through all of this and he knows whats going on so whatever we were told, we could tackle as a family! Dr. Moots confirmed that the tumor has grown and he said he felt that it MIGHT not be a slow growing tumor as suspected in the past. When he used the word AGGRESSIVE, I felt the tears whelping up... I think I stopped listening for a moment and then I realized it was time to figure out a plan.

A plan... Dr. Moots told us that options were limited and we needed to seek out some clinical trials but there was 2 more chemo options. I have been a clinical trial looking fool. I have called everyone and anyone who will talk to me. It's definitely a frustrating task (as most of the this medical stuff is). As of this moment, we have an appointment at Duke on Friday and I am waiting on an appointment at Cornell. Cornell has promising clinical trials so my fingers and toes are crossed. Duke was wishy washy but said we'd have to come talk to the Dr to 'discuss' options. Will keep you posted...

I'm asked daily how I can stay so focused and positive about this situation but... I HAVE NO CHOICE! I am the only person who can keep my family trucking along. If I roll over and die then so does my family. We are not doing this alone. I have some of the most amazing family, friends neighbors and coworkers. I also have a great distant 'cancer' friend who I met through this blog. I know at any given moment, I can rely on any of them at anytime!

Last note... I refer to our boat and here it is (sadly, I think I am missing someone):

Family-Brian Mosrie

Neurologist-Brian Wiseman

Radiation Oncologist-Robert Malyapa

NeuroSurgeon-Reid Thompson

NeuroOncologist-Paul Moots "The Captain"

Oncologist-Bruce Avery

Whew, are you tired of reading. Now that I am back in action, I will post every few days. Keep up in your thoughts and prayers!