Appointment Update - More Prayers Needed / Father's Day photos

Sorry for the delay, but we were waiting for a follow up call back after the appointment with answers to a few questions and I wanted to make sure I had all of the info before posting.

Where to start...Dad has been feeling much weaker all of the sudden over the past week and a half. He started using a wheel chair occasionally and beyond weakness has had a few episodes of almost "temporary paralysis" when he really can't move his legs and sometimes arms at all temporarily.

Re: the appointment, the scan results of dad's brain MRI do show an increase in activity since the scan several weeks ago in the area of his past tumor. Not a drastic increase, but an increase nonetheless. There's no way to be sure if the activity is a new tumor or residual effects of radiation without going in and removing it via crainiotomy. It was clear, the doctor feels Dad should not undergo a 3rd craniotomy because of his weakness and past history. So basically he said he can either continue on the steroids and do nothing or there's one procedure he could try as an option...this procedure would have the same risk factors on the brain as a craniotomy, but is supposed to be a little less invasive on the body. Either way, the doctor said the weakness and paralysis in time will continue to get worse. Personally I was caught pretty off guard by the appointment...I realised the scans showed activity, but I guess I thought we would just gamma knife again and continue on. However, since gamma knife is more radiation and the activity showing could be residual from past radiation, that's not an option.

Anyway, Dad would like to move forward with the procedure as soon as possible to see if it could help...it's so hard to decide what the right option is in each of these cases, but I think I agree it's better than just sitting back and doing nothing. The procedure is really new, so there aren't many doctors who perform it and I don't think they've even treated a melanoma patient with it locally before. Similar to a craniotomy, Dad would be under anesthesia for several hours and for the procedure, the doctor uses extreme heat through a smaller incision than a craniotomy to essentially burn off or kill all of the cells (good and bad cells) in the area with the activity.

He will hopefully be meeting with the doctor who will perform the procedure next week for a consultation and pre-testing and will schedule the procedure to occur as soon as doctors schedules will allow.

I'll try to update again once we have a date, but please keep the prayers coming and as always, thank you for the continued support...

On a different note, here are a few photos from Father's Day and we do have some positive news...Mom and Dad will be grandparents again in December - Austin and Kristen are expecting a little guy or girl on December 28th. TGFB (Thank God for Babies)