Nothing New From the Doctor

I was hoping to post last night after the doctor called us, but he didn't call until after 8:45 and as my kids know - my brain does not function after 9:00pm, so I waited until this morning to give you an update.

Dr. Jensen reported that the Jedi Council had met (surgical/oncology team) and that the cancer is definitely a level 4 glioblastoma primary cancer.  The next definite step will be radiation and chemotherapy.  The oncologist's office will call me either today or tomorrow to set up an appointment to meet the oncologist and his team for early next week.  Depending on David's strength and recovery from the surgery, they may start radiation as early as the end of next week - the doctor said it was important to get started as soon as possible, but recovery from surgery may delay that.  I asked him what the long term prognosis was and he said we would talk about that at our appointment next week.  He told me that they would do an MRI every 2 months to follow the effectiveness of the radiation and how the tumor was responding.  He also told me that they would be able to try some different chemotherapy treatments if the tumor was not responding well.  Dr. Jensen was very pleased with the surgery, but emphasized the need to get him into radiation as soon as he was able.

An update on David:  after cutting his steroid dose in half, all he wants to do now is sleep and the doctor told me that was normal but we were to watch for severe headaches and to make sure we could get him to totally wake up.  That has not been a problem.  Abbie took him on a walk again yesterday, but he was extremely tired after that.  He slept almost all of the night last night - which he hasn't done since before surgery!!  He is concerned about work - as usual - and what needs to be done at the JCC and he's anxious to get the garden planted at home.  We'll work on that one this weekend - I can't wait!  But he continues to regain his balance and his speech little by little.  David will begin physical and occupational therapy in 2 weeks which I think will really help him - and somebody else can be the bad guy instead of us!!!!

Again, I thank you all for your prayers, good wishes, kind thoughts, emails, phone calls, food and everything you have done for us.  One of our nephews, Ryan Smith, sent us a large container of meat and food from Omaha Steaks!!  Oh my goodness!!  What a treat, Ryan!!  You truly know what's important to a man!!  David has thoroughly enjoyed every bite - as have we!!  We love you all and feel your support and love.  We will keep posting as things go along.

Love,
Janis