Stable...

Good news - today's MRI indicated that the tumor has not grown so we are kicking off another round of Temodar this evening.

We had been a bit nervous about the scan - as many of you know this past month has been very challenging. For most of the last 3 weeks, Keith has been very weak and hasn't been up for much. He tires easily and snoozes off and on during the day. We have not been able to do much in the way of walking or occupational therapy. To make matters worse, he has also had considerable difficulty eating - most food just plain tastes bad. We have relaxed our dietary regime somewhat in search of something/anything that is vaguely palatable. The Baja Fresh Mexicana Burrito is one of the very few things he can manage to eat. We are working on the macro version!

So....why is Keith feeling so bad if the tumor doesn't look like it's on the move? The doc thinks that this is most likely a side effect of the heavy dose of radiation - and that we may be in for another month or two of the same. The good news is that the radiation had an effect; the bad news is that he may continue to feel (really) lousy for a bit.

Holding steady

Good news again. Keith's latest MRI (1/2/07) revealed that the tumor remains unchanged - no bigger than our last look a month ago. We are proceeding with the next round of chemotherapy - a 5 day dose of Temodar beginning this evening.

Otherwise Keith continues to make gradual progress. He has added 1 or 2 short walks to his daily regime and, although these are challenging and his legs are sore, he manages. Beginning this week we are also looking forward to trying out some of the Wellness Community classes - yoga, visualization and Qi-Gong. The Wellness Community has been an immeasurable help in terms of support and networking; we haven't had a chance until now to take advantage of these additional offerings. The current objective is to get body and mind moving again now that radiation is behind us.

The program of drug calibration we began in mid December is moving along. We are currently at the "maximum" combination dose of the two anti-seizure drugs - Keppra and Topomax. So far Keith is tolerating the new drug very well - but the (temporary) overlapping dosages leave him a big "foggy". Relief is in sight: beginning this week we will start gradually reducing the Keppra with the expectation that we will have it worked out by the first week in February. In the end, Keith should feel less "drugged" and he should have better seizure control. We also expect to have all steroid use eliminated by the end of the month.