A Bit of Growth, A Road to Share

Hello - Back in Abilene. Glad to be home. Jack did extremely well during his MRI last evening. Never moved an inch! We felt your prayers each step of the way. This morning we had his clinic visit and were able to talk with Jack's oncologist, his neurosurgeon whom we haven't seen in over a year, and a new neurologist that we hadn't met until today. It was one stop shopping, we just sat in a room and one after another doctors came to see us.
The report of the MRI was that there seemed to be a small bit of growth on one of the area's they were watching. They measured it for us and it was 2 millimeters to be exact larger than the last time they measured it. The many doctors on the team including those listed above and a couple more have looked at Jack's scans and felt it necessary to move his next MRI up one month to the first of January then re-scan and see what the results look like. If those results are in line with the results from last nights MRI then Jack will be starting a new treatment. Most likely a different form of chemo but no specifics were talked about today. Dr. Price, Jack's neurosurgeon said that every time there is any change and additional treatments are needed it is always between chemo, radiation, or surgery. The team involved looks at all the pro's and con's and decide what is the next step.
The area that is growing is on Jack's brainstem. It is on the outside, so many options are ahead of us. When Jack had his resection surgery in April of 2005, this is the area that Dr. Price tried to get at, removed a baseball size of a tumor down to this little miniscule area and Jack's body would not tolerate the last bit being removed as it was interwoven inside his brain stem.
You might wonder why they don't start treatment right now? Dr. Bowers said that the area of growth is so small that there is no immediate necessity of treatment until they can confirm with Jack's next MRI that there is consistant growth. They want to make sure that Jack doesn't needlessly get put through another round of something unless it is necessary. The chemo and radiation bring with it risks of future cancers being developed because of the treatment, so treatment is not taken lightly.
We have an awesome team of pediatric doctors who are at the top of their profession and not one felt like this was life threatening for Jack at this point. We are very lucky that this is benign and not malignant.
I was thinking on the way home just how I felt about this, was I going to worry about it? No. Then I thought this really is just more of an inconvenience than it is a tragedy. And then the Lord convicted me this is not an inconvenience, there is road to walk, people to meet, smile's to share and most of all Jesus to be shared. This is not an inconvenience it is an opportunity to live life to the fullest and share the Lord. Thank you Jesus.