Another good quarterly scan report

Trey's latest MIBG and MRI scans results were encouraging. He had them the last week of October and, thankfully, he keeps getting better at the routine - especially the MIBG. This is the one that takes 3 days of visits to Strong and requires that he remains very still for each scan. He's getting good at following instructions, letting us and the technicians hold his arms/legs/head down, and keeping occupied looking at and talking about all of the kid stickers on the machine.

His oncologist, Dr. Casey, said that the MIBG showed "less brightness" than his MIBG 3 months ago. This is a good thing. More brighness typically means that the cancer cells are active. There was also no evidence of any new spots or spreading of the tumor.

The results of the MRI were that the size of the tumor was "unchanged". Again, Dr. Casey said that this is good news. No increase in size is what we want to hear. His last few MRIs have all shown that the size of the tumor is unchanged.

So since the tumor size doesn't appear to be growing or active, and since Trey's monthly blood and urine counts are all in "normal" range, Dr. Casey is recommending that we space out the MIBG/MRI scans from every 3 months to every 6 months. It's been a full year since Trey stopped his chemo treatment and so this is a good indicator that the tumor is likely regressing or dying off. She reiterated that she would be extremely surprised if anything took a turn for the worse.

We have an appointment with her in December and I (Tim) still have some specific questions that I want to go through with her before I can actually endorse the 6 month plan. But if Brandy and I are comfortable with her plan, then I know Trey will be happy to only need to go through all of this twice a year.

Thanks to those who still check in!

Tim & Brandy

July Scans

For those of you that are still checking the blog to keep tabs on Trey, he had his 3 month scans last week (3 days of MIBGs and an MRI).

Dr. Casey said that there was no change from his scans 3 months ago - which is a good thing. The MIBG is not "lighting up" any brighter (which usually means the tumor is not growing or highly active), and the MRI showed that that tumor is the same size. As long as it's not growing, the doctors are happy. There were no indications of any new spots in other parts of his body, and his blood and urine tests were all in the "nornal" range.

So we will likely continue with the 3 month routine of scans until the doctors tell us otherwise.

As his oncologist has told us many times before, it could be years until they are willing to use the phrase "cancer free", as all they have to go by are a bunch of non-invasive scans and tests that look at tumor size, shape, location, trends and other characteristics to try to formulate a "status" of what's going on inside his body (vs. going in and biopsying). The neuroblastoma tumor could, in fact, regress to a benign harmless tissue, yet still show up on the MRI. Of course, we'd love to just see that the thing disappeared...but we are realists.

But, she said that the fact that since he stopped chemo treatment in October there has not been any indication that the tumor is growing, then she is confident that we are in a good place.

Thank you for all of your support and prayers, and keep them coming.

- Tim & Brandy

April/May scans

Trey had an MRI 2 weeks ago and his MIBG scans last week. This is part of his current observation plan of monthly blood an urine tests, and quarterly MRI/MIBG scans, to monitor the tumor tissue that remains in his upper spine.

The results were that both the MRI and MIBG show "no change" from his scans 3 months ago.

Trey's oncologist assured us that this is good news. While we'd like to see the damn thing disappear completely, we understand that a.) the tumor tissue may never go away; it may develop into a benign form of tumor, which means it would/could always show up on an MRI, and b.) the whole process of declaring Trey "cancer free" is a long journey, and as long as these tests and scans show that the tumor isn't growing, spreading or showing signs of activity, then we can feel positive about Trey's outlook.

So all things considered, we are very happy that things aren't moving in the wrong direction.

For what it's worth, the size of the tumor is 25mm x 18mm x 9 mm and is in the "T1-T3" region of his spine.

Thanks again to all for your thoughts and wishes, and please keep Trey in your prayers.

March checkup

Trey had his monthly blood and urine results checkup on Monday. Although his HVA and VMA counts were a little higher than last month (a point or so), they were still within "normal" range and his doctor wasn't concerned. His next wave of MIBG and MRI scans will be the third week of April.

We had to reschedule his appointment (with the neurosurgeon who did his surgery last March) to take a look at Trey's cold hand because the entire Bauza household had that nasty stomach bug a few weeks ago (except Tim). So hopefully we'll have a little better insight into whether or not the cold hand is related to his surgery.

Can't believe it was 1 year ago tomorrow (St. Patrick's Day 2009) that Trey had his surgery to remove the bulk of the mass from his chest. Needless to say, it's been quite a year. Our little guy was a stud back then at 9 months old, and has been such a trooper throughout this whole process.

Here's a picture from last March a day after his surgery. He never missed a beat.

Also wanted to post a couple recent pics.

Enjoying the snow with Josie. Can't believe all of that snow is gone already.

Good monthly checkup

Had the 1 month appointment with Dr. Casey, Trey's oncologist, on Monday to go over the blood and urine lab reports. Everything is in the "normal" range so this is good. She was considering revising his MRI/MIBG scanning schedule from every 3 months to every 6 months, but she consulted with his former doctor (who had 25+ years of experience in children's oncology) and she recommended to stay on the 90 day schedule for at least 1 year post chemo. While we aren't thrilled to have him go under general anesthesia so much (he has to every time he gets an MRI), we'd rather be absolutely sure that his tumor isn't growing or spreading, and the MRI is one of the ways they can stay on top of the tumor's behavior.

Aside from that, we have an appointment scheduled with the neurosurgeon who did part of the surgery last March when they took the mass out of his chest/off his spine. We noticed a few months ago that Trey's right hand is always colder than his left. It's never blue, he is very coordinated with that hand, and he doesn't ever seem to be bothered by it, but it's just something we want checked out in case it's somehow related to the surgery. Trey has a touch of Horner's Syndrome as a result of the surgery, which was caused by the disruption and contact the surgeons had to make with his sympathetic nerve that they cut the tumor off of. The Horner's is what causes his "sleepy" right eye, smaller right pupil, and inability to sweat on the right side of his head. Is the cold right hand a coincidence???????

Looking forward to Josie's 4th Birthday this Friday!

Here are a couple pics of the big guy from last month, after he fell on a bookshelf corner and got a wicked shiner. Looking pretty bad ass!!

Encouraging results.

We had our appointment with Trey's oncologist today to go over the results of last week's scans. What she said was:

• His urine and blood counts are in the "normal" range, meaning his platelets look good and his ability to fight infection is in good shape
• His MIBG scans (in which neurblastoma cells show up in the scan "lit" up) are not as bright as they were in the MIBG 3 months ago, which indicates that the tumor is there but probably regressing/dying off
• The MRI showed that the tumor size was unchanged; as long as it hasn't grown, the doctor is happy

All of these results combined mean positive progress over the past 3 months. We will continue to do regular blood/urine work and the MIBG & MRI scans.

Trey has also grown by about 3 inches and 3+ pounds over the past 3-4 months, which is great.

I wanted to post a funny video of Josie and Trey in the tub making fart sounds. It's never too early to learn.

Thank you all for your prayers and offers of support.

Tim & Brandy

Week of scans

Just a quick update: Trey has his 3 month follow-up scans this Tuesday --> Friday at Strong (3 radioactive scans + an MRI). Hopefully no surprises. We'll know more next week. Keep him in your prayers.