January NIH Visit

Missy and our parents headed up to the NIH last week for her follow up scan following her six weeks back on Avastin.  The tumor had an amazing response to the medication and is dramatically smaller!  This is such wonderful news and we feel truly blessed.

The doctors explained to Melissa and our parents that there are three categories of people when it comes to Avastin.  There are the people who do not respond at all, then there are the short term responders and the long term responders.  There is no way to know if Missy is short term or long term, but the fact that she has been on the medication for nine months and during those nine months it was continually effective in suppressing tumor growth is a very good sign. All we can do now is leave her on this medication and closely monitor any tumor activity.  There are "Long Term Avastin Responders" who have been on the medication for years and it continues to work.  We continue to pray that Missy will be one of these people.  Time will tell, but for now this was absolutely the very best news we could have received.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support of Missy and our family.  We are so thankful for you all.  She will go back up to the NIH in two months. I will update again at that time to let you know how she is doing.

Update on December NIH Visit and Conference Call

Melissa and my parents had the conference call with the doctors up at the NIH and after meeting and discussing Missy's case the doctors decided that Missy does NOT need surgery right now!  This is such a blessing.  These surgeries are extremely difficult on Missy and come with a ton of terrifying possible complications, so avoiding surgery is the greatest news we could have possibly gotten today.
 
The doctors made their decision based on the fact that although the growth of the tumor over the last eight weeks is alarming, the tumor is not extremely large.  Combine that with the fact that she is having no side effects from the tumor, and it makes them think surgery is not what she needs at this time.  There is the IV treatment, Avastin, that prevented any new growth of this tumor the entire time she was on it, so they believe that is the the best treatment is to go with for now.

So they want her back on her IV meds as soon as possible.  She has an appointment with her local doctor to hopefully set up an infusion before the end of the week.  She will do that treatment right away, then another in two weeks.  Two weeks after that she will go back to the NIH for another scan.  Hopefully it will show no new growth.  The option for surgery is still on the table at a later point, she is very strong and the tumor is operable, they just do not think the benefits out weight the risks as of today.  We are hoping this medicine continues to work and she does not need surgery any time soon!

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support.  We are so very thankful for you all.

Merry Christmas!

December NIH Visit

Missy had her 8 week scan up at the NIH on Thursday, and the results were not what we expected.  Her MRI came back showing aggressive new growth of her tumor. So aggressive that the doctors think the best action to take is most likely going to be to go in and remove the new growth.  Her doctor will be meeting with the board to discuss options on Tuesday, but when they spoke with him on Friday it seemed most likely they they would opt for surgery.  Of course this news has been very difficult for Missy and everyone in the family, but we feel very blessed that they are options of ways to fight this cancer.  We have aggressive treatments to fight aggressive growth, and that is a good thing.

We have two treatments that the doctors and Melissa feel will give her the best chance to fight.  Four months ago the doctors took Missy off an IV infusion treatment, Avastin, that was meant to cut off the blood supply to the tumor. The six months she was on that medication there was no growth. She was also on a chemotherapy pill, Temodar, which they left her on during her break from Avastin. Without the Avastin the tumor has grown out of control. 

Fighting cancer is very hard. And the most effect way to fight it is to remove as much as possible. And that's what we are fairly sure they want to do. The most effective treatment. Because she is very strong, she is fighting very hard, and they want to give her the very best chance to beat this. And that means taking out what they can, then putting her back on the medication that we now know works to stop growth of whatever is left. So we think that is the plan.  Tuesday we will know for sure, but we are expecting surgery in early January. 

Missy and the rest of our family are very happy to have two ways to fight this cancer.  We know another surgery will be very difficult for Missy, but she wants to do what is most aggressive to kill this cancer.  She is very brave, very strong, and she wants to do whatever it takes.   We are leaving that decision up to her doctors.

I will update again next week after we hear from the doctors about surgery details, if they do decide surgery is the best option.  Thank you for all of your prayers and support during this difficult time.  They mean so much to Missy and our entire family.

October NIH Visit

Hello everyone!  Just wanted to stop in and let you know that last week Missy had her eight week check up with the NIH and things went well!  There was no new growth of the tumor, which is always the best news.  They are watching the tumor closely to evaluate if she can continue her break from the IV treatment she was previously doing along with her chemo.   She will go back up in eight weeks to have another scan and they will go from there.  For now, the doctors felt good about the visit and told her just to stay with her current treatment plan.

Everything around here is going really well for our sweet Melissa.  She has started keeping Henry (her nephew) one day a week and they are both loving this schedule!  Henry loves his Aunt Mimi!  She is spending lots of time with family, friends and her boyfriend George and she is feeling good. 

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support.  They mean so much to us all.

Recent NIH Visit

Missy and Mom went back up to the NIH last week for a follow up MRI. On the plane from here to the DC airport they realized they were traveling with a celebrity!

John Wall had been back in town to play an exhibition game and was flying back to DC at the same time as Missy and Mom. It makes any trip more enjoyable to see someone famous at six in the morning!

The visit to NIH went very well. The MRI showed that the tumor had no change, so the treatments are working well to prevent new growth. They are making so changes to her medications, taking her off one for the next eight weeks to see what the effect is, but all in all things are going very well and Missy is doing great!

Thank you all for your continued support. We appreciate you all so very much.

Overdue Update

Hello everyone! I am so sorry that I have not been on here to update in so long. I have no real excuse except to say that things have been going very well for Missy, and so it hasn't really occurred to me to post. I will try to do better and at least post a general update every month or so, just so that people using this blog are in the know about our sweet Melissa.

Several weeks ago Missy went back up to the NIH to have a repeat MRI to see how her current treatment is working. The scan showed that everything is looking wonderful! That the cancer is under control and her brain is healing and looking much healthier than it has since this all began. We feel so very thankful and blessed.

With her health finally looking better and under control Missy has been enjoying her summer. She is looking for a low stress part time job, since her full time position in research was just too much for her at this time. She has taken a couple small trips this summer and has been enjoying quality time with family and friends. Her treatments, along with the travel to and from the NIH every 8 weeks, is taking a lot out of her, but she is feeling much more like herself and is very thankful for that.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. We all appreciate all you do as she continues down this road of treatment and recovery.

Follow Up at the National Institute of Health

Missy and Dad flew up to the National Institute of Health yesterday for a follow up MRI and to meet with her doctors about the effectiveness of her current treatment plan. She found out this morning that the scan shows her cancer is responding exactly as they hoped to this new treatment! This is such amazing news! We were all very hopeful that it was working well, since she seems to been feeling more like herself lately, but there was definitely the fear that we would get a report of new cancer growth as we did last time. Hearing the words that this is working like it should, to just continue on with treatments as planned, it's just such overwhelming and wonderful news.

Missy and Dad will be flying home tonight, and she will continue on with her current treatment plan here at home. She will go back up to the NIH for another MRI in two months, just to keep an eye on things and to make sure nothing has changed.

Thank you all so much for your continued prayers and support. They mean so much to us all.