If you’re reading this you’re more than likely aware that on Monday just gone Alex had another MRI. In the weeks leading up we’ve had a few things to be worries about, while they’re not massively concerning collectively there was some concern.
We’ve had a period where Alex has been vomiting a lot, in fact the majority of mornings he would wake with a coughing fit that ultimately resulted in vomiting some phlegm. Unfortunately a vomiting child in our house doesn’t really upset us any more since it has become such common place over the last 2 and a half years. But the prolonged, repetitive nature of the vomiting was concerning.
The other issue; still relating to his radiation therapy (we think…) is that Alex isn’t eating enough and is losing weight, a lot of weight. Its a bit distressing to see how thin he is to be honest, he’s under 13kg and hes very nearly 6 years old. The timing is great for school holidays, it means Jo can keep a much closer eye on Alex and figuratively speaking keep the big stick on him and make sure he is eating. Perhaps because he is feeling better after the cold, perhaps because of said big stick, perhaps a combination of the two – he has begun to eat more food and more regularly which is great news. As long as that translates to weight gain and soon, we’ll be quite happy with that.
On to the MRI – Jo is a trooper, she’s done the last few MRIs with Alex and managed the day really well. After starting in DOSA (Day of Surgery Admission) at 11 am, he went under Anaesthesia about 2:30 for the scan which normally takes around 90 minutes. Jo had a few things to do while he was under which meant she was going to be busy and I was at work, so much like every other day (ie. Jo busy and me at work!). They came home about 6pm and we got on with a normal night and the next day or so of anxious waiting for results.
Tuesday went by with no call…
Wednesday about 10:30 I got the expected call from the Oncology team with the results.
The abridged (and bit I understood) version is that while the results aren’t brilliant, they’re “OK”. There are 3 lesions that the doctors are monitoring; 1 at the initial tumour site, 1 on his brain stem and 1 on his spine. The good news out of this scan is that the tumour at the initial tumour site and the one on his brain stem have shown “stable dimensions” ie. No change which is a very happy break even results.
The not so good news is that the one on his spine has changed dimensions. Not dramatically so, but enough (a couple of mm) to be of concern.
What this means grand scheme, we’re not quite sure of. We have a meeting with the Oncology team on Friday to discuss the results in detail and form a plan of attack for the future so for now thats the information we have and wanted to make sure that everyone was on top of it since we’ve been a bit quiet on the blogging front of late.
As usual I’ll sign off with our thanks to everyone for your messages of love and support via the frightening number of ways to get hold of us. Your support gives us a lot of strength to keep going, so thank you.
Phil, Jo, Alex and Jenny.
Good luck to the little trooper. That result sounds mostly promising, at least.