For the month of April she took a break from radiation and chemo.
Now in May, she will start a chemo-therapy only phase for six months. Essentially she will take the chemo-therapy pill, Temodar – at twice the dose when she was doing radiation treatment –for five consecutive days out of every month. The side effects are fatigue and nausea. To handle the nausea, the doctor prescribed Zolfran, an anti nausea medicine.
We had some good news, as a follow up MRI revealed that the tumor site is healing nicely, and no growth. The doctor said that she could not be happier about it -- except that she wants to continue working with Jess to reduce the frequency and intensity of Jess’ headaches. MRIs will be done every two months.
Sean has resumed going in to the office after being on family medical leave from late January – mid-April. However, he has informed his boss of his need to take intermittent family medical leave based on how Jess is feeling with the chemo. Also, he takes off Mondays in order to drive Jess to her blood work appointment.
Last week, Jess tended to Jake’s needs during the day when Sean was at work. However, we are starting to truly accept that we have a need for a baby sitter for a few hours daily, at least. Jess has too much fatigue right now, and when chemo kicks in, we expect that there will be other side effects. So, we are investigating that child care option now – a bit late we know.
Jake is crawling very actively now. Soon he will be cruising along the walls and tables. His speech patterns have changed too. Now we think he is trying to speak words but doesn’t quite get how to do that. His intonation and inflection seems to come and go. It is very exciting!
On a closing note, Brain Tumor Action week is May 4 – 6. Brain tumor research is under funded. And the Medicare waiting period of two years is unreasonable for those with brain tumors. Please check out the North American Brain Tumor Coalition. Become an advocate .Write letters and make phone calls to your elected representatives.
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