Round 11

I've just finished my eleventh round of chemotherapy and, unsurprisingly, it has begun to take its toll.  I guess when you reach the 11th round of anything (a heavyweight prizefight, your turn to buy a round for the eleventh time), it is time to think about packing it in and going home for a rest.  I'm almost there.  When I swallow these seven capsules of poison for five days every month, I think - just attack the cancer.

7 months

Chris just returned from San Francisco. A crazy, short dash to get his MRI done and the next two rounds of Temodar in hand.  Despite a lot of trepidation going into the trip, the news was once again a great relief: stable disease to possible response.  After two sessions at the Osher Center and a great visit to Dr. Chang we were fully satisfied that all the subtle symptoms that seemed to be creeping into our lives were the result of too little rest, many different medications and jumping back into full time work again for the first time in 6 months.

Treatment

We discussed our treatment options with our doctor - we could simply monitor the tumor with regular MRIs and hope that it is in fact a very slow growing cancer and discuss treatment when the tumor showed change.  It is a strange thought that I may have been carrying this cancer in my brain for a very long time without showing any ill effects.  We will never know this.  The doctor thought this wasn't the best option in our case and this made sense to us given that I had started to show some symptoms.