More waiting...

Dr Geyer called us this morning to relay the discussion from yesterday's tumor board meeting. As I suspected, we're going to have a few more days of uncertainty about next steps.

We want to make sure the Interferon treatment actually failed before moving on to radiation. There wouldn't have been any point in trying Interferon if we weren't willing to give it the time it needs to work.

On Monday, Summer will have the HASTE MRI to check cyst size again. At that point, if they see noticeable growth, we'll probably head for radiation. If not, it may be that the Interferon treatment did work after all, and we'll continue to monitor with frequent scans.

While we agree this is the right approach, I have one concern about it - they drew fluid out of the cyst right after the MRI last week, so we don't have an apples to apples comparison point for cyst size. Will they really be able to tell whether there is any increase in fluid by comparing the 11/3 MRI with the 11/15 MRI? Seems like a little bit of guess work will be involved since they'll have to factor in the 4mL they withdrew.

I mentioned this to Dr Geyer and he thinks they will be able to tell, especially if it's filling up as quickly as it has in the past. But, this is a relatively short time frame between MRIs--not even two weeks--so I'm not sure I'll be satisfied with the results if, come 11/15, they see no change.

Given that bit of uncertainty, if the scan shows no change, we're going to push for the next MRI to be sooner than six weeks out. Since the cyst accumulated ~3 mL in less than four weeks, I don't want to wait any longer than that for the next scan.

I'll post more after our appointment on Monday.