A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.
Proverbs 18:2 ESV
Melinda and I traveled to Austin today for another MRI, since the one Thursday was not useable for the Cyberknife configuration. We are praying that today’s MRI will be. We arrived at 9:45 AM for a 10:30 AM MRI appointment that should have lasted no more than an hour. I say an hour because I specifically asked when they called to make the appointment since Melinda had a 1 PM oncology appointment as well as a chemo appointment; or at least we thought she did, more on that in a moment. You can probably already guess that the MRI went longer than an hour. In fact, we did not leave Dell Seaton until 1:15 PM.
Dell Seaton was nice enough to call oncology and let them know we would be late. I am getting to know Austin a little too well as I was able to navigate through some neighborhoods and get Melinda to oncology by 1:30 PM. Thankfully, our oncologist saw us fairly quickly given that we had missed our 1 PM appointment. I will highlight the conversation with the oncologist in a bit, but first a small rant about a break down in communication. When we had finished talking I asked about going over to chemo. He looked at me strangely and said she can’t do chemo until it has been a full two weeks since the last treatment. That will be Thursday at the earliest. I’ll have to admit I got a bit frustrated; Ephesians 4:26 popped in my head and I reminded myself we had to come to Austin for the MRI anyway. I did ask if Melinda had to wait until at least Thursday for chemo then why did his office staff schedule us for today? He said he was not sure but would remind them that we drive in from Temple and we need to arrange his visits with treatments. We both thanked him for that.
Conversation with the Oncologist
The oncologist asked Melinda how she was doing and ran a few tests. He told us that although the MRI from Thursday could not be used for the cyberknife configuration the MRI did show three small spots and nothing where the original tumor site had been. He proceeded to tell us that the results of the genetic testing on the tumor had finally come in and that the good news is Temador does a very good job of killing this type of genetic tumor. He believes this is why nothing has come back in the original spot as Melinda got a really good dose of the Temador last year. The bad news is the Temador tore up Melinda’s stomach, which is why he stopped it and started Avastin. I was blunt and asked him based on this new information what did he recommend. He recommends that Melinda stay on Avastin (Chemo IV) every two weeks, start Temador (pills) one week each month, and have the Cyberknife radiation treatments. He believes this is the best plan to kill the cancer in her brain. He did recommend that Melinda try some different pain and nausea medications. He believes they may better help with the side effects.
Pray, Pray, Pray, and then Pray some more
Melinda and I have prayed about it. I told Melinda we have the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and I feel they are telling us she needs a trifecta (Avastin, Temador, and Radation) to be healed. Please pray that this trifecta of treatment will cure Melinda’s cancer, but most importantly that she will be able to eat and maintain her strength throughout treatments over the next weeks and months.
If you are unfamiliar with the Trinity, we would love to tell you all about it; so that God can give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you and remove your heart of stone. (Ezekiel 36:26 paraphrased) When he removed mine it was life-changing.
