Recovering from the Flu

Travis continues to recover from the flu, fortunately he feels better each day.  :)  He's spent most of this afternoon in typical weekend fashion. Hopefully this healing trend continues as we head out on our trip on Tuesday.

The initial local radiologist reports indicates Travis' plexiform is "relatively stable". That makes me wonder what the local radiologist means by "relatively stable". Sometimes it may be interesting to be in the room when a radiologist does their read of T's MRI images or if it is their first time seeing T's plexiform. We'll get the volumetric analysis sometime here soon, probably wait to hear until we return from our trip. The tumor volume will be easier to assess based on detailed measurements.

This was an emotionally exhausting week for me with the sickness and MRI. Typically when we couple illness and scans, the news isn't the best. Needless to say I had a lot of apprehension this time around. Back in March '09 T was in to see his pediatrician since T was pretty sick. While we were there, I showed the dr how hard it was to straighten T's left knee. That was a huge change in ~2 weeks. When the local x-ray didn't show a reason for the contracture, T's pediatrician referred us to see the Orthopedic team at Children's in Denver ASAP.

The second time was Dec '09, Scott and I were the unlucky recipients of food poisoning 2 days before T's orthopedic and genetics checkups in Denver. We spent most of those 2 days recovering. The orthopedic appointment that Monday morning wasn't the "Yea! T's walking!" we thought it would be, they were saying it was time for surgery. That afternoon was when the geneticist at Children's in Denver suspected T's large plexiform, confirmed on MRI 2 weeks later.

Last January T was sick with pneumonia when we learned his tumor progressed to a point where T would be removed from the clinical drug trial. Travis was hospitalized the next day. *We're very fortunate that most of Travis' appointments are outpatient appointments or MRIs and only 2 hospitalizations in his life (rotavirus and pneumonia while on immuno-suppressant last year).

Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and support for Travis and our family. We are so blessed in so many ways. I'm thankful for God's timing and being able to wait to start the Rapamycin after we return and that Travis was able to have the MRI done on Tuesday. The boys are getting caught up on their homework and assignments handed to them for the upcoming trip. Will try to post when/where I can.