MRI news

Time slips by; I did not realize I had not written since before the arrival of Sirius Black Monster, Emily's new bunny, who is very friendly and working out well. The kids are both out of school now for their between-term holidays; Joseph has been having practice exams the last two weeks, so has hardly been in school, really.

Manford had an MRI this week, and we met with the oncologist next day for the results, which were not encouraging. He has growth in three areas that I guess were suspicious before, and now seem to be tumors. One is where the first tumor was taken out, in the middle of the right frontal lobe; one is anterior (frontmost) frontal, and one is temporal (all right side). This helps to explain why he couldn't get off steroids, and has been having a bit more trouble lately. There is really no active treatment that has any reasonable chance of helping, so we are seeing the palliative care team next week. I will be trying to decrease work further (from two days a week to maybe just essential meeting, and what is essential?).

We did get the hot tub finished about two weeks ago, and it has been great for the kids and me; Joseph has been in it every night and actually talks to me sometimes...Manford has had difficulty getting in and out; we got a rail put in this week, but it was still a bit stressful getting out, so we'll have to see. The OT may have some suggestions.

It is spring, with many pretty flowering trees, but also rain, rain, rain...

We are going to try to spend a few days in Auckland over the next two weeks; we were thinking of going to Australia, but I don't think that is realistic--but Auckland is close and there are many things we haven't seen, and if the weather clears, maybe a dolphin and whale tour.

We appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

on solid ground

You may have heard about the big (7.1) earthquake in Christchurch today--our thoughts are with them, but be assured we are far away from Christchurch, and Hamilton is one of the safest, most earthquake, volcano, tsunami-free zones in New Zealand.

We did have a lovely spring day today, with sun and a breeze, such that our patio finally dried out enough for the paving man to come and finish it! hurrah! He has been stymied for over a week by daily rain. We should have the hot tub within a few days.

We are thinking of the Wines, who must be in full wedding prep mode. We hope all goes wonderfully on Monday.

Manford has had an up and down week, good visit to the doctor on Tuesday, off steroids a week, then on Friday up at 4 am and unsettled, confused, difficulty walking and saying what he wanted to say, memory problems, and headaches, so back on steroids now, and better, but a bit frustrated. Chemotherapy postponed slightly to see how he does over the weekend.

And tomorrow Emily and I will go fetch the bunny, whose name may be Thunder, if it suits.