Stable Scans – March 28, 2018

It was a long day of appointments, but we are so thankful to report that Emma’s MRI scans today were stable. The MRI showed that her main tumor is stable. There are three nodules that they have been monitoring and one was slightly bigger, one was stable, and one was smaller so they are considering those a wash and calling things stable.

Dr. Chi decided after seeing Emma and hearing how she has been doing that she would recommend not starting any treatment at this point and waiting three months to scan again. She felt that since Emma is doing well and things are stable, it would be good to let Emma continue to have some time off of treatment so she can continue to gain strength and endurance back after everything she went through this fall.

Dr. Chi said she could have made a case to put Emma on a trial they have opened here in Boston that she thinks would be a good treatment for her, but since she is doing well and things are stable she is comfortable waiting and not starting treatment again. She said she feels there will probably be a opening later in the study if we would need to start treatment again in a few months. Overall both Dr. Chi (oncology) and Dr. Ullrich (neurology) were happy with Emma’s progress the last few months. They were happy to see her skin is clear and that she has continued to gain strength and endurance back. Emma also had an eye appointment today, and those results showed that her vision is stable, and that there doesn’t appear to be any pressure on the optic nerves. We have to go back tomorrow for a visual field test at ophthalmology and then will also see endocrinology.

We were very nervous about what the results would be today, since Emma has been off treatment for several months now and because we had stopped treatment so abruptly because of the skin issues. We weren’t expecting the news we got, so we were very pleasantly surprised with the stable results. We are so incredibly thankful for this good news and look forward to a few more months of life off of treatment.

Thank you to everyone for all of the prayers and messages of support today. We can feel all of the love and prayers and know that they are the reason we make it through these hard days and that we were blessed with news we received today. We continue to be humbled and are so thankful for the outpouring of love and support for Emma and our family! Thank you for being EmmaStrong with us!