Between Innings

Back to Dave's story. Like I said we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with all the kids home. This always fills my heart. It always seemed cliche to me, until my boys grew up and moved out. Now to have all my kids under one roof brings me more happiness and contentment than almost anything else. And the next few weeks were a nice break from treatments or doctors visits. The Phoenix doc wanted an MRI at three weeks after treatment, but the Sedona docs were not in agreement. They said this was too soon and could produce "psuedo-progression". The brain being so irritated by the radiation that it appears as if the tumor has grown. We were inclined to follow the advice of the specialists in Phoenix so an MRI was scheduled for a week before Christmas.
We enjoyed the break, preparing for the holidays, shopping, putting up the tree and lights. He was also working full time and thoroughly enjoying his job. He had his MRI and we went see the doctor in Sedona. The report said there was a small amount of tumor regrowth and lots of irritation and swelling from the radiation. He recommended we wait 2-3 months and have another one done. In the mean time we were to start his monthy chemotherapy, which was twice the previous dose for five days each month, for a year.

The Zanot Christmas Tree

Christmas came, which was wonderful. We spent the morning opening presents and the spent the evening at my friends house with her kids and some of her relatives and friends. She made a great Christmas dinner, which was a huge load off my shoulders, I wasn't sure I was up to the task. Then we all had a blast singing Glee karaoke! It was perfect, surrounded by friends and family, having a ball, just the way Christmas should be. Dave was feeling good and nearly back to a 100%. There was almost a sense of normalcy.

Lean On Me!

Lean On Me!

But we knew better, we knew this would be a long and hard fight, yet I still wasn't prepared for what came next. Two days after Christmas we went the specialist in Phoenix. She looked at the MRI and asked what the doctor in Sedona had said. Before we could finish telling they wanted to wait and see, she said no no no no no. You cannot take a "wait and see" attitude with brain cancer. If we wait and see and the tumor grows to the other side of the brain, then it becomes inoperable. She said she had seen pseudo-progression before and she did not believe his MRI showed that. This was tumor regrowth and we should operate again, now. She said had the surgeon she preferred been on call she would admit him now. She said not to be alarmed, it wasn't an emergency, but these tumors required aggressive treatment. And praise the Lord the tumor was in a place where they could afford to be been more aggressive. So plans were made for a pre-op MRI on Friday January 7th and surgery for Monday the 10th. My parents would come stay with kids and I would stay at Dave's Aunt and Uncle's home in Scottsdale.
All I could think was, here we go again. He was just almost fully recovered from the first surgery. Now they're going in again?