Friday, April 15, 2011

Week 2 of last chemo cycle and a stable MRI!

So last Thursday, Jason received chemotherapy, week 2 of last cycle without any problem.  Also, the final report from last Monday's MRI came out and it was STABLE!  no new growth!















The left side is from January of 2010 when Jason was first diagnosed with the brain tumor, before surgery and chemotherapy.  The rigt side is from Monday's MRI.  Visibly a big decrease in size overall.  Jason's neuro-oncologist said it looked like about 50% reduction in overall size.
Good.. Jason has two more weeks to complete the current cycle of chemotherapy.  Then we will be just monitoring his tumor with regular MRI until it shows any signs of regrowth.



Sunday, April 10, 2011

Finally, the LAST CHEMO cycle!!

Last week, Jason received the chemotherapy without any problems.  This was week 1 (out of 4) of the LAST chemotherapy cycle!!! Yay!  If all things go well, his chemotherapy will be completed in 3 more weeks.
What a long chemotherapy it was!  It took him almost 15 months to complete the induction and 8 cycloes of chemotherapy.  After this chemotherapy is over, Jason will be monitored every 3 months with MRI.
If there is any signs of tumor regrowth, then he will be put on some more therapy..it could be another chemotherapy or radiation, or whatever that might be appropriate at that time.  Just hoping that the tumor will remain stable for a long time.
Lately, Jason is showing more interest in some foods.  He like to eat "gim" which is a thin roasted/seasoned korean seaweed.  Also, he likes to put "veggie sticks" from Trader Joe's in his mouth.  He usually take a small piece into his mouth and melts them and swallow.  He still doesn't know how to chew and swallow.  Basically, he is melting these food and swallow what he can.  He also seems to like american cheese slices (again, these are easily melt in his mouth).  I wanted to introduce more food items so I bought some cheddar cheese flavored corn puffs and dry freeze banana slices from Trader Joe's today.  I think these items will easily melt in his mouth.
Next month, we will start going to Kennedy Krieger Institute to prepare for the intensive feeding therapy.  Jason will work with an OT (occupational therapist) weekly who can introduce many food items with variety of textures and tastes and possibly work with Jason's sensory issues while he is on the waiting list for the intensive feeding therapy.  I am hoping that he can get into the intensive feeding therapy and completed it sometime in this summer and start his special education/IEP this fall.  Let's have our fingers crossed!!!!
my husband creasted this pic using an android app called camera 360, cool!!