March 23, 2009

GREAT NEWS!

Dear Friends and Family,

We got great news today! First of all, the tumor actually shrunk a little bit. Three months ago, the tumor measured 2.0 x 1.1 x 0.9 cm. Today it measured 1.9 x 1.0 x 0.7 cm. That probably doesn’t sound like much, but when you realize how resistant to treatment this type of cancer normally is, it really is a miracle that the tumor has been reduced as much as it has and is still shrinking after more than a year on the same chemo drug. The doctor was amazed!

Also, the tumor was not nearly as bright and white on the MRI image today as it was three months ago. This would suggest that the drug (Avastin) which Evan receives with his chemo is working to cut off the blood supply to the tumor. In other words, the cancer cells are less active and unable to reproduce as easily. Again, the doctor was impressed!

And finally - the best news of all is that starting next week Evan will have three weeks between treatments instead of two. The dose will stay the same, but Evan will have an extra week to recover. I’m really hoping that will go a long way to improve his quality of life.

So that’s the plan for the next three months. We’ll go back for another MRI at the end of June and see how the tumor reacts to the reduction in treatment. Thanks again for all your prayers and support! We appreciate you all so much!

With love and gratitude,
Margot

April 30, 2008

GREAT NEWS!!!

Hi Everyone,

We got GREAT news today!!! Evan’s tumor shrunk more than 50% since his last MRI. It’s less than half the size it was just 8 weeks ago! It’s even smaller now than it was after radiation back in November. In February the tumor measured 3.4 cm x 2.6 cm. Today it measured roughly 1.5 x 1 cm. Even our doctor was pleasantly surprised by such impressive results. He said that this level of improvement is most likely the result of faith and prayer, because medical science can’t explain it and would not have predicted it!

We wholeheartedly agree with that! Without a doubt, we know we have all of you to thank for it! Thank you so much for all of your prayers for Evan and our family! They paid off in a big way today, and we are so grateful!

Since the tumor is obviously responding well to this chemotherapy, we’ll just keep doing what we’re doing for the next two months and check it again at the end of June.

It’s going to be so much easier to live with all the side-effects now that we know it will bring some significant benefits! After the last MRI in March, when we found out the tumor had grown back to almost its original size, I felt like we had endured 7 long months of treatment with little or nothing to show for it. When the new chemo turned out to be so miserable, we really started asking ourselves, “What the heck are we doing all this for?” I don’t know how much longer we could have maintained the strength and motivation to keep fighting without seeing some really positive results today. We walked into the doctor’s office prepared for the worst, and walked out with a miracle! (We practically skipped all the way to the car!) It was the best day we’ve had in a very long time!!!

We love you all!

Love,
Margot & Evan