Here's An Update About My Nephew Matt

A Journal entry from Matt's dad, Don:

Hello everyone, It's with a cautious heart that I share today's news, yes it's good  :)
I met with Dr Dorn today, Matt's radiologist, and we reviewed the X-ray from yesterday as well as briefly discussed the MRI of Matt's brain.
  
The results are 'not common'.  Normally it takes radiation quite some time to take effect as in 3-4 weeks with the major results coming @ about 6-8 weeks.  Quite simply the tumors are melting, we don't know if it's the radiation, the cesium, the hydrogen or a combination of everything but his hilem, the area between his lungs that was swelling and putting pressure on his vena cava has shrunk already by ONE THIRD!  Matthew asked Dr Dorn if this was normal and he said "very often no, it normally takes quite a bit more time".  WHO CARES!  It's shrinking!

On to the brain,  Matthew had a MRI with contrast.  Contrast is used because of the robust activity of cancer cells it's uptake is much quicker of the contrast so it "lights up" on the scans better.  They were able to see the lesions in his brain but there was NO UPTAKE of the contrast.  This would indicate the tissue is dead and not active! 

All of this news is such an incredible turn from where we were a month ago.  They were telling us to "go home" , "take a vacation"!

As you can imagine as a parent it's very hard to manage this kind of information and stay balanced.  We will continue to move on and it appears that the bone marrow/stem cell transplant is looming on the agenda if all continues this way. 

Matthews spirits are amazing!  He is SO HEALTHY!  Jumping around, went for a walk with mom yesterday and broke into a run across the park in the grass.  He's wrestling with Cargo and playing with all the energy and vigor of a 13 year old. 

Thank you to everyone for all your prayers, support, generosity, compassion, thoughtfulness, and love.  This experience has taken all members of this family to some incredibly scary and incredibly wonderful places all @ the same time...  

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/matthewwilkins 


LOVE