February 15, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

Yesterday we traveled to Seattle so that Janae could receive an MRI scan.  Later we met with Dr. Rockhill to review the scan.  He told us that he felt both of the tumors that had been threatening Janae previously, and which he treated in October and November, appeared to be about the same size or maybe just a little bit smaller.  However, he told us that the scan showed where one other tumor, that had been present and that we had been watching, had tripled in size since our December scan.  Previously it was about the size of the top of your finger and now it is the size of a large grape.  This tumor is growing aggressively and is now the current threat to Janae.  The swelling continues to be a problem and was about the same as the December scan or a bit worse.  We shared with him that Janae has deteriorated over the past month or so in many areas, such as having her eyes closed much of the time, sleeping more, not as coherent, having hallucinations, etc.  He explained that all of these would be symptoms of this new tumor and the continued effect of swelling in the brain.  Dr Rockhill felt that with all that is going on that he did not feel comfortable treating her with any Gamma Knife radiation at this time.  He commended Janae for being so optimistic and for all that she has done to keep going for so much longer than he ever expected or thought possible.  He said that he knew we had an impressive support group, but that we may want to contact Hospice and have them help us care for Janae.  Together, we decided to increase her steroids for a short period and then have another scan in the next 6 weeks to see if anything more could be done for Janae, if that is what we wanted to do.

This was not good news.  Prior to having the scan we knew that something was not right with Janae and so we wanted to see what was going on according to the scan.  This, however, was not what we wanted to see.  We are downhearted that Janae has done so much and we felt that we had the threatening tumors in check at our last scan in December.  We had hoped that she could do better, but had observed that she was not doing better.  Apparently this new tumor, and other smaller tumors that are also present, could grow at any time and be very serious threats to her wellbeing. 

We will be determining with Janae how we should go forward and to what extent.  We are very grateful for all of our many blessings and for all of our wonderful family members and very supportive friends that have done so much to help and inspire both Janaeand I for the past 3 ½ years.  We feel that all of your prayers are being answered in our lives and thank you for them.  Thank you also for all of your acts of kindness.  This may be a good time for any of you who desire, to contact Janae, as we do not know what the future holds.  You can call her at home after noon at (509) 884-3307.  We love you all,

Calvin and Janae