UPDATE

Pathology reports are in,bad news is there is a regrowth in my brain. Good news is it is still only one spot. The rest of me still looks good, blood work is all good. the spot that is being treated is right next to the tumor that was removed in June. The original tumor site is clear, so the docs don't feel like it is traveling, we just need to treat a bigger area. They are not concerned about the discomfort in my rib areas, just scar tissue and post reconstruction surgery side effects. I will be starting whole brain radiation with hippacampus sparing on Monday. 10 treatments.

This puts a damper on the holidays. The hospital is over 100 miles round trip and trying to keep up with 5 kids is hard enough with out trying to juggle treatments and travel and the holidays. I am so tired, trying to recover from 2nd brain surgery in 5 months and now this.

After treatment I will get an MRI every 6 weeks. And they want to do CAT scans every few months on my chest, pelvis and abdomen. Part of me likes the idea of being watched closer, but I also have to deal with scan-xiety more often too.

I keep reminding myself of the positives-I did achieve PCR to the chemo, and since chemo doesn't cross the blood brain barrier, it is possible that this little bugger just got up there before the chemo did it's job. Disease tends to travel from the body to the brain, not the brain to the body--if we can get this under control, I have a good chance of "disease free survival".

So I guess my only choice is to keep praying and keep fighting.

Dana