Another Stable Scan!!!

Jen’s scan today was stable!!!  There is still this one little finger like appendage in the new growth (from August) that had concerned Jen’s doctor a couple of months ago.  It does not appear to have changed since then though, but still bears watching.  There are other areas of the newer growth however that do appear as if they may have shrunk a little.

Jen is scheduled to resume chemo on Tuesday if her blood levels hold.  Jen has also come down with a cold or flu and has been pretty out of it since yesterday.  We are trying to give her as much rest as possible so that she can hopefully beat this sickness soon.  If she is still sick next week it could possibly delay her ability to resume the chemo on time.

Next week Jen also has appointments with wound care at UCLA for her scalp irritation and Cedars for a follow up with her Neuro Oncologist there.

Thanks again for all the thoughts and prayers and we wish everyone all the best for the holidays.

Another Update

Jen has completed another round of chemo and her next scan is this Thursday.  She has been doing good for the most part.  Jen did have a couple of bad days following a pair of minor seizures last week, but she seems to have rebounded since then.  It's been about 2 months since Jen previously had a seizure.  This is about her average and they usually come in 2s.  They always give us a little pause and increased anxiety going into a scan, but since they have been ongoing for 3 years, we try to not read too much into them, but a little extra concern is inevitable.

We finally visited City of Hope.  We have been working with them since Jen's first recurrence in August and it took this long to make sure Jen was a candidate for a trial they are conducting.  Jen is now officially in the queue.  There are presently no openings until about June, so we hope she remains stable and can still qualify when we get to the head of the line.  This is an interesting trial that uses a type of immunotherapy known as CAR-T cell therapy.  They also have a stem cell trial that we are in consideration for as well (still need to run a few tests to see if Jen is a candidate).  These are trials for a reason - there are no a guarantees of anything, but they are two of the more interesting approaches out there and ones that Jen is not immediately disqualified for due to her multifocality.  Here is a link to info about the CAR-T trial for those who are interested in learning more (note the tab on the left specific to brain cancer as well):

https://www.cityofhope.org/research/car-t-cell-therapy?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIl_-z48-D2AIVDy5pCh1PTQaaEAAYASAAEgJUbPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Tomorrow Jen begins attending physical therapy again to continue working on her overall balance and strength.  Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as Jen goes for her next scan this Thursday.  I will keep you posted.

We had a great Thanksgiving which we shared with a few close friends (forgot to get pictures).  We also had a really enjoyable visit from two of our nomadic friends on their journey south for the winter.  And of course we got to see a couple of concerts as well.  Pictures are below.

With Tim and Matt at the Elbow show

Elbow

Jerry Lee Lewis!

Jen and I at Jerry Lee

The Killer himself

Jerry Lee joined onstage by Kris Kristofferson



Hanging out with Paul & Mary

With Kathy and Tim for a performance of the Brandenburg Concertos

The Brandenburg Concertos by Bach are a particular favorite of Jen's