October 20

And yet, another setback. It began the day she was leaving Maryland. Just as she was ready to walk out of her room to head to the airport, her team of doctors came in to give her the news that they had found another lesion in her brain. It is small, but is located in a very sensitive areavery near her brain stem. It would need to be treated, but since it was small and she was not having any symptoms, they recommended she go ahead with the plan to go home for a week and come back to start treatment. After treatment was finished, she would deal with how to handle the new site. Well, she was home barely one day and she woke up feeling very "weird". She had a headache that started the night before and a strange tingling feeling in her hand and an overall weakness over her entire right side. She called her doctor in Maryland who told her to go immediately to an ER and be checked out. Will drove her to Jordan Hospital where she checked in to the ER and had a scan and chest xray. What they found was that her new lesion had some bleeding which was most likely the cause of her symptoms. After stabilizing her, they ordered an ambulance and she was transferred to Mass General where she would again be checked in to the ER to be scanned and tested (a process that took 8 hours!). At 12:30 a.m. this morning she finally was admitted to a room in the hospital. They have started her on steroids again which will hopefully control any swelling in the brain and help with her symptoms. She is feeling much better today and after discussions with her doctor, it has been decided that she will stay put for the weekend. She is to meet with her neurological oncologist Monday morning to discuss her next step. Because this new lesion is in such a dangerous spot, surgery is not an option. If they determine that it is safe to do, they will do sterio-tactic radiation on the new spot, but they need to wait until there is no further bleeding to proceed. Today Glenna had almost her entire family and lots of friends come to visit. Auntie Jeanne has been here everyday. Aunt Cathie and Uncle Bob are out visiting from Arizona and they came by with cousin Jen. At the same time Adam and Kate, and Alex and Jake were here, so it was a real family get together. We took up the whole family room. It was great for Glenna to be with all of these people who love her.

This last two days has been a very scary time for Glenna and for us. She continues to plow bravely through this insanity, which is a constant reminder to us of what a incredibly strong and positive soul she is. Lots of "bumps in the road" but always continuing without ever giving up hope (and with very little complaining). She has the best professional care possible and we will all continue to plow ahead and pray for a miracle to come along and find our Glenna.

Until the next time, with much love, MK