Good News Update!

Hello All!

I have some good news to report… This past Thursday I met with my oncologist for our regular “off week” meeting.  During that visit, he went over the report written by the radiologists with the results from the MRI I had done on Tuesday the 8^th.  The report indicated that there is what is called “encephalomalacia” (translated literally to mean softening of the brain), left in the area where I had my tumor removed during surgery and where the residual abnormal Lymphoma cells used to be.  A lot of times, encephalomalacia has negative implications for people -- After all, who wants their BRAIN to soften?!  In my case however, this is a good thing because the tissue that is shown to be “softened” are where the once malignant cells were.  These tissue/cells are soft because they are dead!  In other words, the chemotherapy treatments that I have been receiving over the past 6 weeks have been working to kill the Lymphoma cells in my brain!  Good news, right? 

The plan now, is to stick with the original plan of continuing with 3 more weeks of the chemo treatment just to make sure that any cells that are possibly still hanging out and not showing up on the MRI, are killed.  That being said, I will go into the hospital this coming Tuesday for my 4^th round of treatment.  From there I will continue with the normal schedule of an “off week” followed by another week in the hospital for my 5^th round of treatment, followed by an “off week”, followed by my 6^th (and hopefully final), week of treatment in the hospital.  If all goes well according to this schedule, I will be done with all of my treatments on Friday, March 18^th!  After that week, I will have another MRI done to again check on the progress of the chemotherapy.  If it has done its job, there is a possibility that I would then just be monitored regularly for any return of the lymphoma.  (We haven’t gotten that far into the discussion with my doctor just yet – I’m continuing to take things one step at a time…)

So there ya go!  A good news update!  Things definitely appear to be looking up, and I attribute that again to all of the positive energy and support being sent my way by all of you, along with the prayers and well-wishes!  In the midst of good news however, I have to remind myself to continue to take care of myself and not get too far ahead of myself with celebrations.  I am not “in the clear” quite yet, so please still keep me in your thoughts in prayers!  With your help and the help of my awesome doctors, I believe we will be celebrating soon enough!  Thanks for reading!

xoxo,

*Casey