Pretty good news
First of all, I want to thank everyone for their prayers because scanxiety is a real thing, and Satan was hard at work, trying to scare us more than ever with this last set of scans! We got to Rochester bright and early yesterday morning to the most cars we’ve ever seen trying to park and valet so it took a while to find a parking place.
Mike had his brain MRI with contrast at 9 AM and we didn’t meet with the neurology department until 2:45, so we had lunch, got groceries and waited in hopes to get in early, to no avail..
The news was pretty good and showed that all 11 treated spots are either stable or have shrunk in size. It also showed minimal swelling around a couple areas that were previously treated so no steroids needed. The radiologist noted one spot that could be potential metastasis in his cerebellar vermix, but it is small and they can’t be sure. Dr Parney had two options: 1) wait 6-8 weeks and repeat the MRI to see if the spot is behaving like a metastasis (growing) or if it is the same or gone 2) do another GKS to zap the spot if we were “overly concerned”. We are not overly concerned so decided to go with option one.
They are scheduling an MRI, a consult and a GKS for 6-8 weeks and if there is no growth we will cancel the surgery. We would love you to join us in prayer that whatever the radiologist saw is NOT a MET and that we can cancel that surgery… in Jesus name!❤️🙏🏼🙌🏼 We also have a zoom call with Dr. Gama in CA on Thursday to discuss some testing that Mike did recently and to get her opinion on things. We love Integrative medicine (combining traditional with alternative)!
In other news, our 13-year-old golden doodle Bella has been drastically losing weight for the last month and a half. I took her to the Vet right before the wedding and she had a large tumor in her liver that was pressing on her stomach. She has been going downhill ever since, and she can no longer stand up or walk.. so today we are sadly going to have her put down. This is very heartbreaking for all of us, because she is absolutely the best dog ever! It’s also very hard because you try not to draw correlations, but that is difficult! We see her struggling and apparently in pain because she is breathing so hard and so fast…I don’t wanna think about death and dying and the end, but this just makes it all too real and hard! Our son Jared just gave us a quote about dogs that says “dogs are just a few pages in our lives but to them we are their entire book”.
Dogs are forever loyal, they love unconditionally and we can all learn a lot from them! Bella used to run miles and miles with me, it was her favorite thing to do! We both slowed down over the years, she still had the heart/desire to run but not the body. She has taught us a lot…she lived gracefully and she is dying gracefully. She never complains she just loves!
Mike and I are reading through the Bible in a year with the Bible Recap. We finished Ecclesiastes today which is so appropriate! Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under the heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5-a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6-a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7- a time to tear and a time to sew; a time to keep silent, and a time to speak; 8-a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
Lastly, Ecclesiastes 9:9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life… Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might… in other words, enjoy your life… Whatever you do, do it well!
I think Mike does this well, so many people come to him for advice and he gives it thoughtfully and well! You only have this one life, live it well!
Be blessed,
Paula
