June 14, 2014

Hello, everyone. We have had another crazy couple of weeks. Unfortunately, Ken's MRI on May 30th showed additional tumor growth. The docs wanted to start him back on Avastin as soon as possible, to try to control both swelling and tumor growth. We had to get clearance from the surgeon (originally he was to wait 6 weeks after his hernia surgery to start Avastin) and insurance approval, etc. In the meantime, his motor skills had continued to decline. Fortunately, two of his brothers and their families had scheduled a visit over the weekend. We had a great time, and Ken really enjoyed himself! He finally received Avastin on Monday, June 9th. On tuesday, he suffered from a small seizure, and wound up being admitted to Danbury Hospital. The tumor & edema has continued to the point that he now has a "midline shift". His motor skills (and some cognitive functioning) have declined significantly. The Avastin can take 7-10 days to "kick in", so we remain very hopeful that this will bring some significant improvement. As of now, the plan is to get him out of the regular hospital (hopefully in the next few days) and moved into the rehab unit while we await improvement. Thanks to everyone for all of your calls & prayers. He does enjoy visitors, so anyone who is local and would like to visit is welcome...but please call or text me first just to be sure :)