7th Inning and "Clobbering the Odds"

This picture may not tell you the whole story, but it means a ton to me. Pictured here are 5 of the 10 professionals that work together as a team to offer Multidisciplinary Neuro Oncology Cancer Care at Intermountain Medical Center in Utah. Three of these were assigned as the team to work on my cancer treatment. Dr. Ali K. Choucair, MD (seated) is my Neuro Oncologist; Dr. Mark V. Reichman, MD (Center Left) was my Neuro Surgeon; and Dr. John W. Thomson, MD (Center Right) was my Neuro Radiation Physician. After the surgery - radiation and chemotherapy, treatments have consisted of one week in four of continued chemotherapy (doses quite a bit higher than the original treatments with the radiation). Six treatments have been been administered with MRIs after each of three treatments to determine how effective the treatment plan is working. We spent most of the day at IMC completing bloodwork, and MRI and meeting with Dr. Choucair. It was quite frustrating to have the bloodwork require two good pricks and some fishing around to find the vein and then the MRI staff couldn't get into a vein either until the sixth try and then success! But, that was worthwhile to reveal that the treatments are still very effective. Dr. Choucair seemed pleased with the lab results and the MRI results. After I made the comment, "Well I guess we are beating the odds.", he responded, "Are you kidding? You are doing great. I just can't believe how well you are doing. You are clobbering the odds." So that is what you would have heard if you were a fly on the wall of that treatment room. We still have several more treatments in the months to come and then if we still have a clean bill of health there will be continued MRIs periodically to watch for any changes that might need to be addressed. The chemotherapy treatments are administered orally so that is more convenient than going to the hospital for IV administration. Also, the side effects seem a bit less to me than others I have met in this process (some fatigue, rashes, headaches and digestive disruption - loopiness and thinking ability a bit mixed up too). It was a pleasure to participate in a market research group of patients with the same diagnosis recently. It was of concern to me to observe very difficult side effects of the others with similar diagnosis. Interestingly, it seems each three to six months, new treatments become available to keep the latest medical technology fighting this difficult disease. We understand some patients are being treated in ways that were not available to us just a few months ago. What started as a challenging day ended up quite encouraging. Such advances keep us hopeful that we will beat this thing yet. It isn't over until it is over and we expect some setbacks along the way but this is good news. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers ---- along with a wonderful medical team, your support has been critical in keeping us optimistic.