28 February 2012 - Neurosciences OPD, New QE Hospital

Deb - 13 January 2012 - Abingdon

Three months since the last post and sorry to be so boring but this entry will be almost identical to the last one.  Deb is still doing really well and her tumour is still stable with no signs of further growth.

On 28th February visited QEH for an appointment with Dr Sanghera to review Deb's latest scan results.

1 MRI Scan

Deb had her last MRI scan (19th since RT) on 31 January. The scan results were again excellent. Dr Sanghera was actually smiling when he bought up Deb's latest scan. He put it on the screen with the result from 6 months ago and there was no discernible difference between the two scans. So despite Deb not being on any treatment the tumour is still not doing anything.

2 Steroids

On 31 January Deb has also had a Short Synacthen Test to measure her body's ability to generate steroids (A Synacthen Test uses a special chemical to test how well the adrenal glands make a hormone called cortisol. It involves stimulating the adrenal glands and then checking to see if they respond. Prolonged use of artificial steroids can often knock out the body's own cortisol production.) The results of the test showed that Deb's body was still producing some cortisol so it agreed that Deb would come off her steroid medication. This has to be done gradually and Deb will reduce her dose by 0.5mg per week over the next 4 weeks. (She may not be able to tolerate this and if she gets extremely tired she is put her dose back up.)

3 Seizures

The only other medication Deb is on relating directly to her brain tumour is phenytoin which prevents seizures. Deb'd need to take this is to be reviewed and she will be referred to a neurologist for a specialist opinion.

4 Next Appointment

Next appointment is on 22 May 2012 to see Dr Sanghera. Hopefully I will have nothing to report before then.