James Family Update – January 2013

I’ve been remiss. I haven’t updated anyone for quite some time about Chris. I really wanted to wait until the holidays were over, especially since it wasn’t good news.Right before Thanksgiving, they found a new tumor (lesion) in Chris’ brain.  It is on the other side from the three that were found before Christmas 2011 and have been fairly stable.  This tumor was not there in September.  In November it was already 4 mm (larger than the other 3 tumors).  Obviously, this isn’t good.

Chris had spot radiation in December and we are waiting to find out the results (I think we’ll know in Feb. after his next CT).  Chris has some nasty side effects (blurred distance vision and not feeling right)  this time around.  The ER Doc (yes a trip to the ER on Dec. 23) thinks that it was due to the steroids that they had Chris on prior to radiation.  Seeing how they are gone now, that make sense.

However, with the latest rounds of scans in November and December, Chris discovered he can no longer manage the anxiety and claustrophobia he is experiencing while having the scans done.  This means that he needs to be sedated prior to the scans and he is no longer able to drive himself to his scan appointments.  This is going to make things a bit tricky.  So far, one scan was on a Sunday morning and I was able to take Chris and the radiation was during the week and Mike (thank you, thank you, thank you) was able to take Chris.

Several of Chris’ co-workers have volunteered to drive him, so this should allow me to take time off for the actual visits with the oncologist, to get the results of the scans.