Tuesday's phone call

Dr. Desjardins called today to say the reviewed the scan and ..... there is no chance it can be biopsied without paralysis. Although I knew this was the case, part of us was hoping for a small miracle.

Plan B... Todd will start chemo again tonight. It will still be Temodar however it will be a 28 day dose vs a 5 day dose. Dr. has advised that Todd will be weak and tired. Temodar is typically pretty good with nausea and hair loss but we were told to expect the worst. I have the arsenal of all sorts of nausea medicine so he should be good for this go around. Dr. said that his energy level would be the pits and not to expect much out of him once the chemo was fully in his system. I know that on Saturday when we went to Krogers, he was tired after that so no telling what the next few weeks will bring. Good news is... he has nothing to do but take care of himself over the next couple of weeks! He will do a baseline scan AGAIN on Thursday for the Duke crew and then another one during the first week of May. In May, she will decide based on the scan whether to stay on plan or bump it up with another chemo concoction.

Last thing... Todd called his Oncologist in Knoxville and he spoke to the nurse. She told us that Dr. Avery has been diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma... sheesh... he just started chemo as well and is getting ready for a bone marrow transplant. She told us that he hopes to be back in a few weeks however I'm guessing we need to be on the lookout for a new Oncologist. Any suggestions??? For the next few weeks, we need the nurses for blood work so all should be good.

Our roller coaster continues... We are good and don't need anything. Just continued support and prayers. Not sure when I will update again... maybe over the weekend after a few days of chemo. Thanks everyone!!!

Done at Duke

We got to Duke at 930 and appt was at 1030... I was excited because maybe we would be in and out quickly but boy was I wrong....

We finally saw the dr at 1215. We saw Dr. Desjardins and I will honestly say that I was a bit nervous since she was a young woman BUT we absolutely loved her. She is the same type of physician as Dr. Moots @ Vandy. The difference between them was night and day. She was very warm and compassionate, not that he's not compassionate but... She explained to us that without a tissue sample, biopsy, no one would be able to do any clinical trials. Which made sense after talking... However since the tumor has grown, She was going to have Alan Friedman, neuro surgeon, look at the scan to see if there is any chance to biopsy. So... She said she would call us on Tuesday after their meeting. Not really sure what outcome I want because either way could be dangerous. Guess it's not in our hands!!!

The new plan: wait until Tuesday, if it can't be biopsied then Todd will go back on temodar but an everyday dose not a 5 days/month dose. Then from there they will watch him and if needed they can add another chemo to the mix.

So all and all not a bad day... Not a great day but we have another plan! Eventually one of our plans have to work, right???!?!

Thanks to everyone who called or texted the last 24 hours... And thanks for the prayers!