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
Saturday, November 20, 2010
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