New Year, New Scan

Last week we headed to London for Matt's monthly appointment and to pick up drugs for round #4 of chemo, but also to get the results of an MRI he had the first week of January. His last MRI was in October and things looked pretty good then, but lots can change in a short time, so leading up to this appointment most of my time and effort went towards actively not thinking about the results we were about to get in London.

We left Owen Sound as soon as the kids were on the bus so that we had time to squeeze in a detour to St. Thomas. Amanda was at work but we had a quick visit with Tyler, chatting about Christmas, treatments, The Office, and football while giving Jax all of the love he could handle. A visit with Tyler is always good for the soul, and this time was no exception. We feel so lucky to know Tyler, Amanda and Jax.

We grabbed some lunch on our way back to London, then headed to the hospital. Matt has been feeling good and looks great too, so we were both feeling pretty positive about what we were going to hear. However, getting blindsided by difficult news this past summer is still a pretty fresh memory, so it took some mental energy to stay focused on the present. I would say that cautiously optimistic was the general mood as we waited.

At this point you're three paragraphs in, and if we haven't had a chance to talk to you since the appointment, you're probably starting to feel a little bit like Matt and I as we were chatting with the neuro oncologist. We both love him, and really enjoy our non-medical conversations with him, but we were both a little distracted as we chatted about crosswords, the Globe and Mail and Pearl Harbour for what seemed an eternity, while the MRI results sat inches from his hands.

We were very happy to learn that this was a good scan, which showed no active tumour growth. The black on the image is fluid, so the cavity where the tumour was is now filled with spinal fluid. The grey is brain and the white can either be tissue that has fluid in it or tumour. However, after comparing different images they feel that the white area around the cavity is showing a slight improvement and they think it is swelling from the surgery that is gradually diminishing. This is great news, and means three more rounds of the same chemo and another scan in April.

October on the left, January on the right

On the way home, we were discussing the MRI and I said I thought it was so crazy that the brain hadn't fallen back into the cavity left by the tumour and that there was just an empty hole. Matt said that he doesn't think it's empty at all, but rather it's filled with all of the love and prayers that have come his way. Suddenly, it got really dusty in the car, but I am inclined to agree.