Half way thru treatment, tumor half shrunk, boys half a year old...

We are half way through the planned chemotheraphy sessions and the MRI scan (done on Friday) showed that the tumor in Tighe's abdomen has been reduced in size by half. The volume is 50% of what it was when Tighe was first diagnosed in early December. After a comment by one of Tighe's doctors at a check-up last week, that he could no longer feel the mass in Tighe's abdomen by pressing on his stomach, I was secretly hoping the results of this MRI would show a significant shrinkage in the size of the tumor. It was very good news to hear today.
Although the size has been reduced by half, the tumor is still in his lower spinal column and this remains the biggest concern. The amount of tumor in the spinal column is also reduced (traversing 13mm across the column versus 18mm at the time of diagnosis) which is great, but we did get a sense from the doctors that this is still a big concern for them.
Some interesting comments/observations the doctor made today are as follows (btw, his doctor's name is Dr. Clare Twist, a rather cool name I think...)
-If the tumor wasn't still in the spinal column, she would probably stop the chemotheraphy treatment now and remove what is left surgically.
-There is a possiblity that after 4 or even 6 chemotheraphy treatments there will still be some tumor in the spinal column. If that is the case there are a number of options

• If the remaining tumor is small enough and is not likely to cause any problems to the nerve endings, and an examination of the biological make-up of the remaining tumor (after doing another biopsy) shows it to be non-aggressive and unlikely to grow again, they may just leave it there and monitor over time (months/years).
• If the remaining tumor is found to be aggressive they will continue to treat it with chemotheraphy.
• Surgical removal of the tumor in the lower spinal column will only be done as a very last resort. It seems like they really want to avoid this as there is significant risk to this type of surgery.

-She is happy with the reduction in the size of the tumor so far.

-She's very pleased with how Tighe is handling the treatments. He seems to be continuing his normal development even while going through all of this.

Tighe started his third round of chemotheraphy today. Gigi was at the hospital with him from early this morning until 10:40pm this evening. They just arrived home. He will be in the hospital on Tuesday and Wednesday as well this week.

Another interesting point to note about today is that the boys are exactly 6 months old (July 26 - Jan 26).

We are looking forward to the visit of Julia (sister) and Jane (niece) in mid Februrary. Their visit will coincide with Tighe's fourth (and hopefully final) chemotheraphy session. The other good thing about their visit, one which no doubt President Obama will be most pleased, is that Jane is coming armed with with a suitcase full of dollars to inject into the US economy. Stores such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Aeropostale, PacSun, Gap and similar fashion outlets will no doubt be beneficiaries of her custom.