Mother’s Day Follow-up

20 May

The month of May has been quite busy for us.  We’ve had lots of visitors in town. First our nephew (with his sweet daughter) stayed with us for a few nights. They joined us at the YMCA for one of our swimming days.  We also hosted a family dinner, thank goodness for take out BBQ.  Then for Mother’s Day, we had even more family come into town.  We all gathered together in Onion Creek and had a great visit with the many moms and great/grand moms. Since initial diagnosis in 1999, this is Susie’s 19th Mother’s Day.  Pretty darn impressive for someone who had a 5% chance of surviving to 3 years.

SusieAtGym

A few days after Mother’s Day, Susie and I traveled to MD Anderson for her regularly scheduled follow-up.  I’ve worked out our schedule so travel is in and out on the same day.  We leave very early in the morning for her MRI in Houston.  I setup the rear of our wagon as a bed, and Susie snoozes until we stop for breakfast (normally kolaches at Hruska’s).  After the MRI, Susie’s doctor appointment is normally in the early afternoon.  After which, we stop for a late lunch/ drive home to Austin.

Last week was no different than previous follow-ups in Houston.  Susie’s neuro-oncologist has a new nurse practitioner, who Susie enjoyed talking with.  She told us Susie’s scans look stable, did a physical w/ Susie, evaluated Susie’s right-side neuropathy and how Susie’s vision/ alignment has improved.  We then met with Susie’s neuro-oncologist, who walked us through Susie’s MRI.  For Susie, this means looking at areas affected by stroke, surgical site (scar tissue/ cancer growth), and radiation effect (brain cells/ blood vessels).  Our motto has become “no changes” = “good news”. In addition, Susie now moves to follow-ups every 4 months.

We were hoping to join in the Callahan’s General Store 40th Anniversary festivities, but Susie did not feel well yesterday.  She was quite disappointed, but enjoyed seeing photos/ videos on Facebook.  Our next adventure is Gabriel’s graduation.

 

Guy Lipof

Accomplished Engineering Executive with deep consulting and sales expertise in healthcare and life sciences, particularly in oncology, driving business strategy, delivering innovative solutions, and improving patient outcomes. Care partner and advocate for raising awareness about and investment towards Brain Cancer Research, such as Glioblastoma Multiforme and IDH mutant gliomas.