Monday, August 13, 2012

ANOTHER bump in the road...

Unfortunately, Campbells scan last week did not show the improvement we were hoping for.  One of the spots that was on the left side of her brain after the May scan - and that was supposed to be being treated with the Sutent that she has been taking - has grown significantly over the past 2 months.  In addition, she has two new tumors growing on the right side of her brain now as well as some growth on one of the tumors in her spine. 

SO...now we will be meeting with the doctors at Sloan Kettering in NYC to get her started on the CERN trial that was being considered as of our last post.  We hope and pray that this is going to be the right combination of drugs to stop these tumors from growing.  Robin has also contacted the folks at St Jude's to talk about Cam's case and see if they can weigh in with their opinion on what the best chance for her is.  As it stands right now, surgery is not an option as there are several locations that we are dealing with.  Radiation again is not something that Dana Farber is interested in suggesting due to the damage that could be caused as a result of treating this area of Cambells brain.  St Jude's has not ruled this out but would look to do conformal radiation as opposed to proton's again.  Luckily (?), this means that we have a few more options available to us.

For now, we will continue to enjoy the wonderful, strong, amazing girl that she continues to be.  The doctors continue to be amazed by her clinical exam as compared to her scan results.  We now are back to watching for potential side effects of the tumor and hope that we don't see any as they are not very pleasant to think about (seizures, back/leg pain, speech issues, etc).

I ask that you all say another prayer for Cam, her sisters, and her doctors as we take another turn in this journey.

With Love,

Greg, Robin, Caitlin, Caroline and Campbell