A Routine and the Next Step

The past couple of months we have fallen into a bit of a routine, hence the lack of updates. Our typical week is Speech Therapy on Mondays, Chemo on Wednesdays, followed by a low-key Thursday, then maybe dinner out with friends on Fridays (always a  highlight), and church on Sundays. In between, it's work for me and gardening for Bobby. He's attacking the yard like a mad man, pulling weeds & dead plants, moving rocks, adding mulch, trimming trees. Which reminds me, we're happy now that Mad Men is back on Sunday nights, temporarily replacing our Downton Abbey addiction. Bobby rides his bike most Mondays with Lloyd, his #1 fitness encourager. We usually hit the YMCA once or twice and walk the neighborhood a couple of times a week (Joey likes that). 

Bobby's managing pretty well, all things considered. He has a mouthful of canker sores, rashes in various places, and general fatigue most days. His speech is understandable, but he still has difficulty with expressing himself as he would like. And yes, that's very frustrating for him.  Monica, the speech therapist says he has "fluent apraxia" and is extremely high functioning. He knows exactly what he wants to say, and says most of it, just doesn't always get the words right. I have some recordings of his speech in the hospital in December, and it was quite eye-opening for him to listen to how far he has come.  As challenging as it is, I am so grateful to be where we are.

We have a checkup with Dr Keller tomorrow, to look at the recent CT scan and evaluate the next step.  Thankfully, the recent brain MRI showed no evidence of additional cancer, and the swelling from surgery & cyberknife is continuing to decrease. However, there was a small area of ishemia, which we are watching.  That's an area where the blood supply has been cut off, possibly during the cyberknife procedure.  It may be an explanation for some of the persistent speech issues.

Thank you for praying for the next step.  As we see it now, if the Torisel is working we will continue the weekly treatment schedule. If not, we will pursue the clinical trial in Bethesda.  But really, there's no telling what the options might be.  We've gave up trying to predict the future a long time ago, just walking by faith instead.

Juli