Hi everyone,
We just got a great report from Alison and Kirk that her MRI today showed continued response to the Avastin. The tumor sites are "smaller and less dense", per Kirk, who said it was evident even to the untrained eye!
It is such a great relief. In recent weeks, Alison had been having more headaches, nausea and fatigue. Her care team told her it related to tapering her steroids, but it was worrisome to hear about tough headaches that she needed to take pain meds for. She did go back up on her steroids a bit, and it seems to have worked - symptoms are all better. But of course, this is the best medicine: a positive MRI report.
Party on!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
Tapering steroids, PT, and bird watching
I have not been doing a good job of keeping the blog updated, and for that I apologize. Just know that, at least for the past couple of months, no news has been good news: My health is holding steady. No recent health issues to concern me or my medical team. My blood pressure is coming down (and so I’ve been able to taper my diuretics). More significantly, I’m tapering off the steroids (with any luck at all, this will be one of my last weeks on the Decadron): I’m at 0.5 mg/day, and assuming my adrenal glands are back at work, I’ll then go to 0.5 mg/every other day! And given that I haven’t had a resumption of neurological symptoms at the current dosage, it’s looking like my adrenals are doing what they’re s’posed to do (yippee!). But this week will be the one to really keep your fingers crossed for…If I can make it through a week at 0.5mg/day, then life will be looking a whole lot rosier for Team Bronstein-Mitchel. And when I go off steroids, I go off the Septra, too. (Just the idea of reducing the NUMBER of meds I’m taking makes me pretty excited.)
Okay, so… what else do I need to catch you up on? Hmmm… I’m again working with my wonderful, incredible physical therapist, Pien van der Herik, who got me back to work after I badly injured my back a couple of weeks after completing nursing school. So here I am with a whole new set of problems to work through, and Pien is again helping me find my way through to improved physical condition. This time around, it’s less about pain and more about conditioning. New and different problems to work through but already seeing significant improvement in my strength, coordination, balance, and confidence. Kirk comes to all my appointments (well, I guess he’d have to anyway, since I can’t drive myself) and meets with me and Pien at the end of my PT appointment so that he can go over the exercises with us…my memory continues to be poor, so having him watch the exercise regimen ensures that I’m doing exercises as Pien intended. And Kirk and I can go to the PT facility any time they’re open so that I can do my PT exercises any time we can get my butt down there. :) So between walking around various parts of the Berkeley hills and marina, and the PT gym, I hope to get back into some sort of shape and lose more weight and get aerobically fit. (This is a big deal for me: I HATE exercise - really hate it. So this is all about self-discipline…yuck.)
We’ve enjoyed some lovely social time, here and there, spent with friends and family. We’re doing a lot of bird watching at our little cottage-on-the-hill: hummingbirds have really come back big-time after a long dry spell where they pretty much ignored us. Our various birdfeeders are attracting finches (three or four kinds), dark-eyed juncos, spotted towhees, scrub jays, Stellars jays, mourning doves, pine siskins, plain titmouse, chestnut-backed chicadees, red winged blackbird, and various LBBs (little brown birds). Plus we’ve seen a lot of hawk activity and hunting here and when we’re out on our walks. Very exciting.
Okay, I believe that catches you guys up. I will try to be better about my updates: I’ll try to do more frequent, but shorter, updates.
Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts. We love you,
Alison and Kirk
Okay, so… what else do I need to catch you up on? Hmmm… I’m again working with my wonderful, incredible physical therapist, Pien van der Herik, who got me back to work after I badly injured my back a couple of weeks after completing nursing school. So here I am with a whole new set of problems to work through, and Pien is again helping me find my way through to improved physical condition. This time around, it’s less about pain and more about conditioning. New and different problems to work through but already seeing significant improvement in my strength, coordination, balance, and confidence. Kirk comes to all my appointments (well, I guess he’d have to anyway, since I can’t drive myself) and meets with me and Pien at the end of my PT appointment so that he can go over the exercises with us…my memory continues to be poor, so having him watch the exercise regimen ensures that I’m doing exercises as Pien intended. And Kirk and I can go to the PT facility any time they’re open so that I can do my PT exercises any time we can get my butt down there. :) So between walking around various parts of the Berkeley hills and marina, and the PT gym, I hope to get back into some sort of shape and lose more weight and get aerobically fit. (This is a big deal for me: I HATE exercise - really hate it. So this is all about self-discipline…yuck.)
We’ve enjoyed some lovely social time, here and there, spent with friends and family. We’re doing a lot of bird watching at our little cottage-on-the-hill: hummingbirds have really come back big-time after a long dry spell where they pretty much ignored us. Our various birdfeeders are attracting finches (three or four kinds), dark-eyed juncos, spotted towhees, scrub jays, Stellars jays, mourning doves, pine siskins, plain titmouse, chestnut-backed chicadees, red winged blackbird, and various LBBs (little brown birds). Plus we’ve seen a lot of hawk activity and hunting here and when we’re out on our walks. Very exciting.
Okay, I believe that catches you guys up. I will try to be better about my updates: I’ll try to do more frequent, but shorter, updates.
Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts. We love you,
Alison and Kirk
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