Over the past week Katherine and I (and our parents) have received a lot of messages from friends and family offering best wishes, prayers, and all kinds of support. We want to thank all of you for your kind words and generosity. Your positive energy sent our way has really helped keep us going this past week. We are doing well, working hard to stay positive, and getting ready for fall in Boston.
In order for Kate to be close to Boston public transportation we will be staying at her parents newly renovated property in Dorchester. Kate has asked me not to post the address online, but if you are interested in sending us a card, letter, etc., please leave a comment on this post requesting the address (please inclood your email address within the comment).
And as far as treatment goes, Kate’s chemotherapy continues (with no complaints) and her daily proton beam radiation will begin on October 1st. Again, we thank you all for your support.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Biopsy and Other News
It has been a while since our last post and so we wanted to thank everyone for their patience while we have been attending to kate, her appointments, and making decisions as to where we go from here. These have been very tiring and trying days for us and we thank you all for understanding. But the news from this past week is as follows.
The Bad News
First all should know that the preliminary biopsy results (still awaiting more thorough results) found only tumor and no fungus or signs of fungus. Secondly, Kate has noted a set of other symptoms that suggests that the tumor is continuing to grow and is thus affecting more nerves. These are bad signs in that treatment of a tumor in this region is incredibly more difficult than treating fungus and there is a great imperative for immediate treatment.
The Good News
Thanks to her doctors up here in Boston, Kate has already begun treatment involving oral chemotherapy and will soon be starting some type of radiation therapy (probably proton beam).
Kate and I will be staying up in Boston for the length of the treatment (at least two months) and there is hope that this treatment could kill the tumor and reverse some of her symptoms. But as has been said in the past, the location of the tumor makes any treatment dangerous and the need for care in this region means that it will be difficult to treat the entire tumor. With that said, the radiologist is hopeful and her other doctors have been suggesting many different options for further treatment. Kate is feeling well, despite the obvious emotional toll this news has taken, and we are taking one day at a time. We will try in the future to be quicker with posts, but her health and well being takes precedence over this blog and all else. Thanks again.
The Bad News
First all should know that the preliminary biopsy results (still awaiting more thorough results) found only tumor and no fungus or signs of fungus. Secondly, Kate has noted a set of other symptoms that suggests that the tumor is continuing to grow and is thus affecting more nerves. These are bad signs in that treatment of a tumor in this region is incredibly more difficult than treating fungus and there is a great imperative for immediate treatment.
The Good News
Thanks to her doctors up here in Boston, Kate has already begun treatment involving oral chemotherapy and will soon be starting some type of radiation therapy (probably proton beam).
Kate and I will be staying up in Boston for the length of the treatment (at least two months) and there is hope that this treatment could kill the tumor and reverse some of her symptoms. But as has been said in the past, the location of the tumor makes any treatment dangerous and the need for care in this region means that it will be difficult to treat the entire tumor. With that said, the radiologist is hopeful and her other doctors have been suggesting many different options for further treatment. Kate is feeling well, despite the obvious emotional toll this news has taken, and we are taking one day at a time. We will try in the future to be quicker with posts, but her health and well being takes precedence over this blog and all else. Thanks again.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Going to Boston
Kate has appointments and a biopsy in Boston early next week. We are leaving this weekend. The appointments are to take care of a few preliminaries before her biopsy on (9/15). After the biopsy we will be staying in Boston for a week (doctor’s orders).
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
New developments
As Katherine’s symptoms (headache, nausea, stuffiness, and a general feeling of “something being wrong”) had been progressing (Dr. speak for getting worse) over the past three days, her doctors wormed to the idea of treating her for a fungal infection. Knowing well that a growth of either cancer or infection could be the cause of these stronger symptoms, her doctors (primary care here in Greenville, oncology at Duke, and radiology in Boston) felt the treatment of a fast growing infection to be more imperative and more immediately effective than treating with chemotherapy as if it where cancer.
This movement by her doctors (towards treating for infection) came to a head today, after the report came in from Greenville’s radiology department, of scans (CT and MRI) that we had gotten made last night. These scans where done in order to give the surgeon who would be doing Kate’s biopsy the “lay of the land” so she would know as much as she could before calling us up to Boston. But while these scans where being shipped off to Boston, Greenville’s radiology team read them and saw signs that suggested advancement of the disease. Upon being notified of these readings and of the advancement, her primary care dr. (with agreement from her oncologist and radiologist) started Kate on an anti-fungal medicine. She will continue to take the anti-fungal medicine while we await the biopsy.
In closing we are still no closer to knowing whether the mass is cancer or a fungal infection. The plan is still to await the biopsy to determine what it is and where to go from there, but at least, in the mean time; we are not just sitting on our hands.
This movement by her doctors (towards treating for infection) came to a head today, after the report came in from Greenville’s radiology department, of scans (CT and MRI) that we had gotten made last night. These scans where done in order to give the surgeon who would be doing Kate’s biopsy the “lay of the land” so she would know as much as she could before calling us up to Boston. But while these scans where being shipped off to Boston, Greenville’s radiology team read them and saw signs that suggested advancement of the disease. Upon being notified of these readings and of the advancement, her primary care dr. (with agreement from her oncologist and radiologist) started Kate on an anti-fungal medicine. She will continue to take the anti-fungal medicine while we await the biopsy.
In closing we are still no closer to knowing whether the mass is cancer or a fungal infection. The plan is still to await the biopsy to determine what it is and where to go from there, but at least, in the mean time; we are not just sitting on our hands.
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