Hi All,

Dad (Doug) was discharged from the hospital yesterday! Mom and Dad had a “relaxing” change of pace at home last evening and then they were back to the hospital today for a few scheduled outpatient activities - blood work and a PET Scan - and a couple of unscheduled activities - IV fluids/meds and two visits with Oncology (more below). 

Both the PET Scan today and the back MRI from Tuesday validate that the cancer is contained to the brain, which is positive (I never thought I would say that cancer contained to the brain is positive, but lack of spread is a good thing). 

Dad did need IV fluids and IV steroids today. He was starting to have some balance issues again this morning once they got to the hospital. The doctor thinks that the chemo is working, but maybe not quite fast enough to obfuscate all of the swelling/pinching in the brain caused by the tumor, so they are upping the steroids for the time being to help control the swelling. The IV fluids also gave the Dr. a chance to review the PET scan and share his impressions in person before the results were posted in myChart. 

We are hoping that next week’s bloodwork is much less exciting, but have been forewarned that transfusions might be necessary. The chemo effects are definitely starting to set in (e.g. loss of taste, extreme fatigue, diarrhea, etc), and week two is expected to be even worse. We're making sure Dad has everything he needs to continue fighting this, and Oreo is always by his side to brighten his day. We're in this together.

As always, thanks for everyone's continued prayers and well wishes! They truly mean a lot to us.

Best,

Robert