Not what we wanted to hear

Over the past two weeks Jen had been suffering from “sinus infection” symptoms.  Nausea, sinus pressure, headaches and cough.  Wednesday, her nausea was beyond bad, and we called it in.  In the afternoon an MRI was performed on her head.  Today, the doctors confirmed the worst, the cancer has spread to her brain.  There are multiple locations ranging in size from barely detectable to 15mm.  There is remarkable inflammation within the rear of the skull, and that’s what’s causing the headaches.  She's been placed immediately on anti inflammatory medication.

Wow, this changes the game. 

Why didn't the Crizitinib prevent this?  The blood – brain barrier.  It’s the mechanism that keeps blood borne infections and foreign bodies from entering your brain.  Unfortunately, this also keeps any oral or blood based medication from acting within the brain.

So there are two treatment options at this point: 1. Surgical; 2. Radiological (Chemo)

Multiple surgeries on the brain poses more short term risk than the cancer, so it’s out.  Therefore, Jen will undergo specialized chemotherapy.  She’ll receive daily, whole brain, chemo therapy treatment beginning Monday Dec 10^th and running through Dec 24^th. 

In addition, a PET scan has been ordered for Monday.  The returned cough has caused concern, and the Oncology team wants to get another complete picture of what’s going on.  Monday’s going to be a long day.

This type of treatment has a relatively high success rate for treating the cancers in the brain at this stage.  However, unless there is a progression of symptoms, or the need to confirm a complete recovery diagnosis, another MRI of the head will not be conducted.  So as long as it doesn’t get worse, we won’t be actively scanning it again.

We tell the kids tonight.  Basically we’re going to talk about the outward effects of the treatment, not the detailed reasons behind it.  There’s no reason to detail how it’s spread. 

This feels like a huge setback.  I’m at a loss for words.  We had all believed that we were on a positive path. 

Happy Holidays Everyone.