latest mri and stuff

we had our most recent appointment on 7/12/06
He last took Temodar in June starting 6/12
Mark's last blood drawn on 7/6, showed that neutrophil counts were low, but we need to take blood again before restarting on chemo. The doctor explained that he won't feel anything when neutrophil counts are low, often plagues young healthy people (not sure why?), but his lymphocytes are ok. We had blood drawn on 7/14 and counts were slightly higher, but not high enough to comfortably start chemo. We had blood drawn again today (7/17) but the counts went back down slightly, so still can't restart at the point. When viewing the MRI, the swelling that we noticed on the previous scan seems to have reduced quite a bit from last time. There is contrast still just around the rim, but no new growth or nodules can be seen. Since cavity doesn't seem to be shrinking much, it is an indicator that the tumor has probably been there for a long time and grew slowly over the years.
Since counts are still down, we talked to the doctor about possibly taking a drug, Neupotin (sp?), that can boost the counts. They said they usually like to gauge how quickly the body can recover on its own from the previous chemo until doing something like that. Taking the drug doesn't actually boost your counts, it just stimulates your bone marrow to send out the young fighter cells sooner than your body would on it own. They said that they have seen that if they administer this boosting drug too often, the patient usually can't stay on Temodar for the hopeful 2 year period. It has been 4 1/2 weeks since Mark last started chemo. We will again take blood on Thursday to check counts. If his counts don't go up within another week and a half, the would consider Neupotin.

Other than that, Mark is feeling great! This past weekend he did another 80+ mile bike ride on Saturday and a big 40 miler on Sunday with hills! He feels and looks great :)

LIVESTRONG!

Thank you to everyone that helped support Mark in the LIVESTRONG ride on June 25th! We found out that the Orange County ride was the first LIVESTRONG event ever! Because of all of the help from family and friends, Mark met his fund raising goal and was awarded a signed, framed Lance Armstrong LIVESTRONG jersey for getting the most individual donors! Mark and his sisters did complete the whole 100 miles (we measured it and it was really 105!). Mark claimed it was the hardest thing he's ever done. The course was pretty brutal...it started out nice along the coast then climbed up Santiago Canyon in the heat of the day (over 100 degrees)! My son, nephew and I became quite the popular cheerers. We suprised many riders every 10 miles or so, with a new sign, change of costume, added with lots of noise and enthusiasm...we were a hit! Mark measured that there was actually 7 hours of riding time, but with all of the red lights and rest stops, it took 10 hours!! It was quite an emotional and inspirational event and we couldn't have done it without the help and support of all of you!