Making Soup

Grandmas for ages have known that it is the best thing to do when things aren't going well.  Whether you have a cold or a broken heart, making soup somehow helps.  Depending on your heritage it may have been chicken, or beef, or matzo ball, or minestrone.  We come from the heritage of the Living Learning center at UVM in the 70's, so we make Pistou soup - beans and veggies with fresh pesto.  Last night was a night to make soup.

Mom got the results of her MRI yesterday, and they were not encouraging.  As we had suspected from her worsening symptoms, the tumor has grown.  This suggests that the experimental Kaytruda drug isn't working.  Going forward, mom's chemo regime will stop Kaytruda and only continue with Avastin, a chemo drug that has been successfully blocking blood flow to the tumor area.

Kaytruda was the "next thing" to try, and now there isn't a next thing.  That is scary.

This week has been hard.  The bright spot I keep coming back to is that we are doing this as a family. I have an ever growing appreciation for those people who are the sole caregiver for someone who is sick.  It can feel overwhelming to care for mom, but I am so thankful that we can give each other breaks, and hugs and words of encouragement.  Thanks to all of you for being part of the extended family of relatives, church family, community members and friends who are sharing this load.  We love and appreciate all of you!

MRI

We're at the hospital for an MRI.   The doctor moved up the date a bit so we can see how the tumor is responding to the current treatment protocol.   Dr.  Thomas was expecting that the Kaytruda would be working by this point; the "worse before it gets better" would be over, and each treatment would be causing improvement.  Unfortunately,  that isn't what we're seeing.  

Instead, we're continuing to see decreasing function.  The aphasia (difficulty speaking and finding words) seems to be a bit worse.  Mom is also needing more help to move in and out of her wheelchair.

Although we are doing the scan today,  we won't know anything about the results until we meet with the doctor on Tuesday.  After that we'll have a bit more information and we'll know whether or not we are continuing with the Kaytruda.  Although we are anxious about this MRI,  we are looking forward to having more information so we can make the best decision about what to do next.