Sandi's MRI Results Today - From Sonya

Sandi has not been on her blog in a few months, but I wanted to share the great news she got today.  Sandi's Oncology report showed that her brain tumor is actually shrinking a little bit.  We could not be happier.  I got to spend the weekend with her in Alabama.  She seems to have a little more energy.  She is lost over 20 lbs since August.  She has no appetite, but a week with my mom had her eating a little more.

Her hair is growing a little bit, and she is still going to be a blond.  Proud to still wear her Alabama cap too.

Sandi still needs lots of prayers and support as she continues chemo and her fight for life. She has not been able to work since her brain tumor was discovered in May.  You can read her story and/or make a donation at www.SandisFight.com. 

Radiation and beyond,,,,

I only have 3 more radiation treatments left!!!! This is a huge relief because I should get a lot of my energy back. I have treatment every morning and then I HAVE to nap in the afternoon because it drains me so much; and I'm getting 8-10 hrs of sleep every night. I'll start a more intensive chemo regiment after radiation is over... not sure which is going to be worse; unfortunately I'm afraid that the chemo may make me more nauseous and also have other fun side-effects that I don't know about yet. There were some additional side-effects that no one told me about, I'm learning that w/ cancer treatment you never know until you are there how you will react to treatment. Even the docs can't predict how people will react to treatment since everyone reacts differently.

Overall things are still looking up. I have my next MRI is in late Aug and then I meet with my neurologist again in early Sept to get feedback on how things are going. After that I'll be getting an MRI about once every 2 weeks so that they can monitor my progress. I meet with my Oncologist next week so I'll know Wed what chemo I have to look forward to.... thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers!!

the cost of drugs....

Thank God for health insurance!!!! My MD wants to treat this w/ a relatively new drug called Temodar, it's used to treat brain tumors and it seems to be reasonably well tolerated by most people. It cost us $35.00 for a 1 month supply and the form says our insurance saved us $6,359.00 on the prescription, wouldn't take long for me to be dead if we had to pay full-cost in order to be able to take this :-) http://www.temodar.com/temodar/treatment_instr.html