Thomas went the emergency room the weekend before his scheduled MRI with an infection and chest pain. After a few day's he was doing wonderful and couldn't wait to get back home however his body was having a hard time fighting the mersa infection and he threw a second very painful blood clot. In addition to all of this we recieved the call with his MRI results that the treatments he had been going through were not successful and his tumors were worse which would have ment a very tough road ahead had he survived the fight with mersa. Thomas passed away painlessly on April 1, 2011 with his parents at his bedside. He will be very missed by his family and friends but his bravery and love will live on through all of us.
UPDATE #5 – DAILY LIFE
3/21/11- Busy week for us leading up to an important day.
This week includes:
Monday - Lab work (ug!!)
Tuesday - Physical Therapy
Wednesday - Avastan Transfusion
Thursday - Physical Therapy
Friday - Sunday - Much needed REST
Monday, March 28th is Tj's next MRI scan. I will post results on that day as soon as we get word. Please pray for good news, we need it.
As far as his day to day status he is still back and forth with good days and bad. Some day's he can't stand straight on his own two feet and he is exhausted from the minute he wakes up. Other days are not so bad.
UPDATE #4 – WORK HIATUS
2/12/11- Due to muscle weakness and some recent nasty falls Thomas has decided to take some time off from work. It’s time to focus on resting and getting stronger so therapy is going be come a twice a week routine and for now Thomas will be on a medical leave from work. Our regularly scheduled Avastin treatment was postponed this week due to some bleeding but will be resumed. It is obvious Thomas is in need of some rest, in the last few weeks he has become increasingly tired and clumsy. We are hoping with the time off and the strength training he can bounce back. We take things one day at a time here so I will keep you updated should anything post-worthy occur.
UPDATE #3 – SCAN RESULTS
1/24/11 - Today Thomas had an MRI Scan to be compared to the original scans. From this they will determine if either tumor has shrunk or grown. This will help us know if the treatment is helping. The results came back showing no change to either tumor. This new is neither good nor bad. Obviously it is good that they have not grown anymore, its not so great that they did not shirnk but hopeful! So with that said the next set of scan’s was scheduled and again they will look for any visible changes. Until then the same course of treatment is to be continued and Thomas is to begin physical therapy to help with his muscle weakness, a side effect of treatment.
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UPDATE #2 - WHAT IS GOING ON?
1/12/11 - Today Thomas had another Avastin infustion these usually knock him out for the rest of the day so he is resting right now. On Tuesday he will go for blood work again and then on Monday January 24th he will have an MRI done to use as the "After" picture which will be compared to the before treatment MRI photos. Most likely it will take a few days for them to read the images and notify us with there observations.
When we get an update I will post here ASAP.
Thank you everyone for your prayers and support.
We all greatly appreciate it.
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UPDATE #1 - WHAT IS GOING ON?
For those of you that don't know Thomas was diagnosed in early November with two new brain tumors. There is one tumor in-particular that the doctors are worried about because it is located on the brain stem. The family including Matt and Myself were informed of his condition after Matt and I's wedding. Then the many doctors meetings, appointments, and tests began along with lots and lots of emotions for everyone. Currently what we know is the brain stem tumor was deemed inoperable because of its high risk location. Based on this and because of the fact that Thomas has reached his maximum amount of radiation for a lifetime an oral chemotherapy pill was decided on as the plan of treatment. This pill is called Temodar and it taken for 5 days straight than taken again in a month for 5 more days and so on. Thomas was having some obvious balance issues and because we have no way to tell at this point if it is being caused by the tumor or the treatment the doctors response was to form a more aggressive plan of treatment by adding infusions of a medicine called Avastin. These two medications taken together is a common treatment for inoperable tumors and has shown to help in some research studies to reduce the tumor and its effects on the individual. We are of course hoping this will be the case for Thomas, However aggressive treatments don't come without their down falls. We are monitoring his mental state, balance, and his blood-work is being drawn weekly. For now this is all we can do and pray for the best until January when we will know more after he has an MRI so the doctors can compare the tumors condition to the previous MRI.
It's not easy but we have done this before and we can do it again with the love, support, and the prayers of loved ones.
For more information on the medications talked about above I have provided these links:
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It's not easy to make sure everyone hears every status update
so I will do my best to post updates regularly
about our battle against Tommy's Cancer.
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