Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers this week.  We sure appreciate them.

There is nothing like a good hot dog or bratwurst.  Most people have their favorite place to eat them.  Just the thought can bring memories of ball games, time with good friends, picnics, holidays, family or just the mouth watering desire they inspire.  There are lots of things in life that can evoke the same memories or emotions, but the good ol’ hot dog ranks high on my list.  I just thought you’d like to know that the hot dogs here at the Brigham’s are worth eating-and not just once!

Each week is always different when we visit here.  You’d think I’d get used to that.  We thought for sure that I’d be headed home today.  Diana even came ready to pick me up; only to find out that the level of methotrexate wasn’t low enough to “release me”.  Bummer; the good news is I have an unending source of “hot dogs” to celebrate the 4th with.  The view from my suite is south of Boston (not the Charles River unfortunately) but who knows maybe there will be some fireworks to see.

Staying a little longer also gave our Dr.’s the chance to have an MRI done today on my spine and lower back.  For the past couple of weeks I’ve been having some aches and pains in my back and legs.  Similar to those after coming back from a three day hike covering parts of the White Mountains (could be old age too I suppose).  Only I couldn’t remember going hiking-ha- and I’m still young; well sort of.  Anyways…Dr. Wen, covering for Dr. Norden over the holiday weekend, met with Diana and me this afternoon to go over what they saw.  There are some small tumors in the Thoracic area of my spine along with some swelling:

http://www.eorthopod.com/public/patient_education/6568/thoracic_spine_anatomy.html

Dr. Wen thought, from the looks of the MRI and preliminary report, that they are most likely related to the same process going on in my brain. It’s so early to know what is going on that we’ll talk with Dr. Norden on Monday to discuss in further detail.  At this point I’ll be back at DFCI in a couple of weeks for a brain MRI and the next round of methotrexate.  We sure do appreciate your thoughts and prayers about this new development.

We hope you have a great weekend with family and friends as we celebrate July 4th (maybe a few hot dogs too, or your favorite foods).

We want to say, we want you to know how thankful and blessed we are for each of you reading this, praying for us, helping us, caring for us, walking through life with us and being an encouragement to our family. Our hearts are full with gratitude for God’s love and grace.  We are blessed to have each of you in our lives!  Thank you!!  When we know more we’ll send out another update.

We love you,

Jim, Diana, Ruth, Becky, James and Ian