Zoë had her last MRI before the end of her treatment yesterday and everything went well. While her tumor has not reduced in size, it has lightened in color. From what I understand this still considered a positive response to treatment. At some point, her tumor will be at a stable and managable size and probably will not get any smaller. As I have said before, she is likely to have this tumor throughout her life. We will just have to keep an eye on it and make sure it does not grow. We are on the home stretch of chemo. Zoë has two more rounds (10 weeks total) of chemo left. Hopefully, if she is not delayed anymore due to low blood counts she will finish up on October 18th, which is Yamboree weekend! After she finishes treatment we will continue to have MRI's done every three months for a year. If there is no change in the size of her tumor we will go to every 6 months. Once she finishes treatment if she has two MRI's with no new growth, she will get to have her port removed. That would mean she would have it taken out in May 2013, two years after she had it placed. Since Zoë has had so many delays due to low blood counts, Dr. Bowers has put her on something called Neupogen. It is a G-CSF (granulocyte-colony stimulating factor). A growth factor that stimulates the bone marrow to make more white blood cells. It is an INJECTION given to her by me each day for 5 days before she is scheduled to have chemo. This will be the first time for Zoë to have injections like this. We will do the first one tomorrow. Wish us luck!
