Thursday, June 30, 2011

Our Day At the HCI

I want a nap and I didn't have to do anything! 

We spent pretty much all day at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.  Today Dad had a few things going on.  First, early this morning Dad had his base MRI.  This is the MRI that will give us the base reading for further treatment.  All other MRI's will be compared to this one in order to determine any further cancer growth in his brain.  That took about an hour.  Then we headed off to Dr. Coleman's office.  We met with his PA and then Dr. Coleman.  The MRI hadn't been read by the technician yet, but Dr. Coleman had a few minutes to look at it.  A majority of the swelling in the brain was gone.  There were still some bright spots, but it is too soon to know exactly what those bright spots are.  They could be leftover damage from the surgery, radiation damage, cancer cells that are dying or new growth.  There was definitely less bright spots than his previous MRI.  Dr. Coleman thought that some of the spots were damage from the surgery that have contracted as the swelling has gone down.  There was a bright spot that wasn't in the previous MRI on the opposite side of Dad's brain, but the same possibilities of radiation damage, etc.  . apply to that new spot.  Treatment will continue as planned.  Today Dad starts his 5 day Chemo treatment.  It is a higher dosage than he took during radiation, but he only takes it for 5 days.  Hopefully he will tolerate it as well as he did the radiation and chemo combination.  He will have a chemo treatment every 28 days.  We have another MRI in about 3 weeks along with some other tests that Dr. Coleman hopes will help him determine exactly what some of those bright spots are. 

Next we went off to the infusion lab, where Dad gets the medication that is part of the study he joined.  It takes about 1 1/2 hrs from the time they bring him in to when they are finished.  The actual administration takes about 45-50 minutes.  He will continue this every two weeks - along with MRI's at specific times for the study. 

From the first time we saw Dr. Coleman (I forgot to take any pictures today)
All in all it was a good day - no major changes to treatment for the near future and we will see Dr. Coleman again in a few weeks. 

1 comment:

  1. We love you big brother, hope things continue to improve. See you all Friday!! Love, the Pardones

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