Roadblock to Recovery

This is Ryan and I'll start by saying that I'm taking back control of the blog, at least for the short term. This is in light of some recent events that I feel require me to debunk myths about Kristine's search for alternative treatments and to address some unexpected turns in her story.

Kristine has been experiencing some loss of motor control in her left leg and arm. Just prior to leaving for Ecuador she noted several occasions where something wasn't quite right. There was one moment where it was difficult to slip on her flip flop and a few others where she had lost her balance and walked into a door frame. She refused to give into what she categorized as a passing impairment of her equilibrium. Her motor skills worsened while in Ecuador. Her ability to walk and lift her left arm increasingly deteriorated. While some of the treatments she was receiving weakened her energy, it was another unexpected and unrelated culprit at work disabling her mobility.

As most of you know by now Kristine is home from South America. She arrived in Philadelphia at around midnight on Tuesday. She was the last to exit the terminal pushed in a wheelchair by an airport worker. She immediately broke into tears upon seeing me, a combination of emotions pouring out. After a long night of talking about the situation, Kristine and I agreed that it was best to see Dr. Staddon as soon as possible. This was a difficult decision for Kristine to make given her reluctance and fear of the solutions that Western medicine are likely to prescribe.

We saw Dr. Staddon at 1 in the afternoon. He performed some routine reflex tests on Kristine's left leg and arm. At that point it was not surprising that both limbs reacted abnormally. The doctor ordered an emergency MRI and CT scan of Kristine's head and neck. It was no sooner that both scans were complete that the Oncology office called us back to discuss the results. Although we could easily predict the outcome it was nonetheless unnerving.

The cancer that started in Kristine's heart and veins and later spread to her lungs, has now metastasized in her brain. There are two lesions (tumors in this case), one about 3.5cm on her right frontal lobe (behind the forehead) and another much smaller one on the right side of her cerebellum (the rearmost part of the brain near the base of the skull). These lesions have caused edema (or swelling) in her brain, which has in turn caused the loss of Kristine's voluntary muscular movement on the left side of her body (you might remember that each hemisphere of the brain controls the opposite side of the body). Additionally, the tumors have caused emotional depression, contributing to Kristine's stress and discomfort while in Ecuador and now at home. It is presumed that these tumors are from the original Sarcoma, the cells from which have traveled through the bloodstream to the brain. It is not thought to be from a new, brain specific form of cancer. This will be an important distinction when we later discuss treatment options.

Kristine is doing as good as can be expected. She is currently on Decadron, a steroid used to reduce inflammation. The drug is expected to eliminate her symptoms for the short term in the next few days while we consider treatment options. We are just trying to keep things light and positive. I will save the details of the potential treatment options for a later post (hopefully within the next day or two). We have an appointment with a Neurosurgeon on Monday morning to discuss his advice.

Ryan