Back in the hospital

First for the good news, Kevin has no pain issues at all anymore, granted he is still on his standard methadone protocol, but he is pain-free, alert and in good spirits. However for the past few days, he has been loosing control/sensation in his left leg, which was getting increasingly worse and then he noticed a similar, but to lesser degree, the same in the right leg, in addition to incontinence. So after speaking with his oncologist on Wed it was decided we should come into ER. The Dr had the MRI already scheduled prior to our arriving, but we still spent 6 hours in the ER, getting the final results around midnight. There were only preliminary readings last night and they called in the neuro-surgical team for consult. It was decided to move him to a standard room about 1:00 am, start him on high doses of steroids, restrict all food/drink in case they ended up in surgery today and wait for his regular neurosurgeon and oncologist to review the final readings and confer with each other.

Later this afternoon we were told the MRI shows the spinal tumors have continued to advance despite the radiation earlier this month and having just completed a cycle of Temodar (Temozolomide). This has further constricted the spinal cord causing the partial paralysis. There are two different kinds of tumors in his spine – the standard solid masses and leptomeningeal disease (LMD). LMD is apparently very rare with manifestation in only about 10% of all cancer patients. It was described to us as a plaque-like growth along the walls of the spinal cord. Because it is so extensive, it was decided that surgery is not an option. The oncologists has explained Temodar is the best chemo for central nervous system (CNS) metastases, but is concerned that there was no positive response after the first cycle -so he wants to pursue an experimental treatment, but first needs to confirm whether Kev qualifies. (Because of the whole blood/brain barrier thing, there are very limited drugs to treat CNS metastases). For now he continues with the high doses of steroids and PT is working with him to develop accommodations and we wait…

Feel free to call, his room number is 713-834-8775.