Chapter 8

Evelyn is finally done with injections! Her 5th injection was a little rough again emotionally for her. She did trial Midazolam again prior to the procedure, however it didn’t seem to help as much with anxiety as we had anticipated. She experienced some anger and a lot of tears, but Eric was able to help her work through that. They spent the weekend around Rochester exploring before she had her final injection the following Monday on January 22nd. Evelyn did amazing with her final injection and chose on her own to not take the medication prior to going back to the OR. Eric was able to go back again with her to the OR and was the one to hold the mask by her face to help put her to sleep, which Evelyn found a lot of comfort in. 

Since her final injection, we have noticed some changes. For starters, Evelyn has noticed a change in the way her Judo mouthguard fits her. We were able to compare pictures of her mouth prior to starting the Triamcinolone injections to a week after completing her 6th injection and noticed that the lesion has decreased some in size. It appears that the lesion has not only started to localize in appearance, making the margins cleaner, but has also started to hardened per touch. With both of these changes occurring, it makes sense that her mouthguard isn’t fitting her like it was previously. This is a “problem” that we are happy to see! Changes should continue to occur as time goes on. 

Evelyn had a follow-up Telehealth appointment with Dr. Arce this week to discuss the plan of care going forward for her treatment. He reported that with every injection he administered he noticed enhanced resistance, which again shows that there are some changes occurring within the tumor. For now, he would like for Evelyn to have a panoramic X-Ray of her Maxilla within the next couple of weeks, followed by another one 6 weeks after her first X-Ray to see if there are any changes noted. Depending on what the X-Ray shows, she will have a followup CT 3-6 months from now to figure out what the next steps are. He would like to push off the CT for as long as possible to ensure that the tumor has had adequate time to respond as it can take months for it to harden.  

We are so pleased to see some positive changes. It has been an emotional whirl wind the last couple of months and it feels like we all are starting to finally be able to take a deep breath. For now, it is a waiting game. We will continue to followup after each X-Ray or CT to update on how she is doing. Thank you again to all of you for your thoughts and prayers!

-The Bollingers