it's been a while, let's check in...

here is what's new since my last blog post........

*initially the radiation oncologist in sioux falls wanted a biopsy before talking about another round of radiation. after meeting with him (and sharing our strong feelings against it) we had him on our side. when looking at cody's scans, he said the biopsy would give us 100% certainty, however he was 95% sure this new spot was tumor/cancer. and if we were ok with 95% then he would go ahead with developing a new radiation treatment plan.

*in 2005, cody had a maximum dose of radiation at 30 treatments. when we went back in 2015 we pushed the envelope and they gave him another 18 treatments. when we showed up in his office again in march, the radiation oncologist couldn't believe he was talking to us yet again. cody (and his tumors) obviously aren't playing by any rules. you certainly wouldn't want to be placing any bets on him.

*you see, glioblastoma is the deadliest form of brain cancer. you have to be aggressive in any sort of treatment, because you already know the outcome. treatment is buying us time. because the new tumor is in cody's cerebellum, they felt it was far enough away from his previous tumors/treatment area that radiation could be a possibility.

*this tumor is deep, close to the brain stem, and close to his balance center. so the big question was..how aggressive do we want to be? the dr. made us make the decision. he explained the side effects of radiation would be no worse then letting the tumor go and getting side effects from the growing tumor. we were given the option of doing another maximum dose of 30 treatments, and that's what we took. this is essentially unheard of.

*the dr. wanted an up-to-the-minute mri to help develop his treatment plan. the tumor had already changed when compared to the scan just a few weeks prior.....basically confirming that we made the right decision. the dr. shared that it was a complicated plan and he lost sleep over it, but everything was eventually set to get started.

*cody gets radiation every day monday through friday. so far he's been tolerating it well. he's received 23 treatments and has 7 to go. he also continues to take a low dose of temodar (chemo) every day to help the radiation "work better."

*we also wanted to be proactive and start Avastin after the radiation has been completed. because avastin is done as an intravenous infusion, cody had to have a portacath placed. he had the procedure done today and cody described it as "a piece of cake."

*the port needs plenty of time to heal before starting treatment. he is scheduled for his first avastin infusion on may 30th and will receive infusions every 2 weeks.


so there's the **brief** low down. let me know if you have questions :)