Monday, August 18, 2008

Holding Steady

Elise has her second Avastin infusion on Wednesday. Since her last one, she's been holding steady ... not getting any worse ... good news! We'll know more when she has another MRI in September. In the meantime, she's been enjoying time with her family and neighbors.
Jasper is getting so big. He turned 5 last week and we had a fun Spongebob Squarepants party for him. It was a hot day, but the kids stayed cool in the pool ... and the adults lounged under the shade trees. I hope Cameron can post some pics and video of the activities.
Last night Jasper spent the night at Gramma's ... we "camped out" and slept in the little teardrop trailer ... watching the thunder and lightening as we fell asleep.
Suanne (Elise's Mom)



random pics




Thursday, August 07, 2008

First Treatment

Elise had her first Avastin treatment. The way this medicine works is by preventing the formation of new blood vessels. Since tumors "feed" on blood, Avastin "starves" the tumor. Elise spent over four hours at the UW Medical Center yesterday afternoon/evening, first getting lab work-ups to make sure she was healthy enough to get the Avastin, then getting the 90-minute infusion. It was a lengthy, but uneventful process. Elise will go for Avastin infusions every two weeks.
Although Avastin has yet to be FDA approved for GBMs, major brain tumor centers have had some promising results from its use. (Avastin is typically used to treat colon cancer.) We are hopeful that Elise will be among those who benefit from its use and that she experiences no harmful side effects.
Suanne (Elise's Mom)

Saturday, August 02, 2008

news

So here we are in August, time seems to be going to quickly.
A lot of craziness seems to be creeping into our lives, car getting stolen etc., but as always there is so much good in the form of those people in our lives it's hard to let the bad get to ya for too long.
Elise's most recent MRI showed that her tumor has doubled in size. It's growth has manifested itself in her symptoms worsening. Memory, speech, and movement in her right side have degraded. The tumor has grown up and foreword, unfortunately growing into the frontal lobe.

Tonight we had one of the hardest talks we ever had. We told Jasper that mama is going to die. It was right up there with breaking the news to Elise back in the hospital.

Elise did a second round of chemo recently which made her really tired, but she got through it very well. With the growth she had a few treatment options that she now can't do. So her next treatment will be a stronger more aggressive form of chemo.
-cameron