Subject: Lesley Update - 9/10

When we last sent a message, Lesley was in the rehabilitation hospital.
Well, she stayed there through the 8th and I picked her up at noon on
the 9th.  She is now home.  All of the doctors and therapists are happy
with her progress and status and feel comfortable with her being home
alone.  MITRE and my managers have been very supportive.  They are
allowing me to cut back to a half-time work schedule so that I can have
lunch with Lesley, take her in to radiation treatment, do my research
into brain tumors and clinical trials, help out more around the house,
and have time for the kids.

Lesley is feeling very good right now.  Her headaches are much reduced;
she no longer wants or needs Percocet.  She took Tylenol (650mg) just
once yesterday.  She is still on steroids and an anti-convulsant (pretty
standard stuff for brain tumor patients).  Her energy level is good
(although she took a 1-1/2 hour nap yesterday), and she just completed a
session on the treadmill.  The treadmill regimen was designed by her
physical therapist so there'll be no 5 mile runs, at least for a while
:-).  Her appetite and eating are good.  Her stitches were removed on
Tuesday and are healing nicely although a little slowly for our taste.
For pictures, see our vacation web site at:
http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Coast/3719/index.html
Her hair is growing back; we still haven't decided what to do about it.
Our hairdresser said that there is a program sponsored by the American
Cancer Society where a hairdresser will come and consult about options
including wigs (I'm rooting for a blonde wig.  I've always wanted to see
her as a blonde!)  I'll be giving them a call.  Lesley still has some
short term memory loss and trouble with finding just the right words.
That may improve over time.  She has no plans to go back to work for the
foreseeable future.  She'd like to follow along with what's happening,
but everyone agrees she should have no responsibilities.  Driving is
also out for the foreseeable future.

The children are doing well.  We're attempting to keep them on a normal
schedule with their sleeping, eating, drinking (no, not those kinds of
drinks!), and activities.  They started school this week and are
enjoying it so far.

That's about a wrap!  It's great to have her home.  She really is into
cleaning things up so I'm helping her out by leaving mail and magazines
and stuff around in random places (only partially true!).  We thank you
for your cards and e-mails and thoughts and prayers.

Bye for now.

Dave and Lesley

Previous message from 8/31:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We met yesterday with Dr. John Henson, the Executive Director of the
Massachusetts General Hospital Brain Tumor Center.  The short and
not-so-sweet version is that Lesley has a Glioblastoma Multiforme
malignant tumor in the left temporal lobe of her brain.  It is/was a
primary tumor, about 5 cm in size that originated in the brain.  They
were able to remove about 75% of it during the surgery.  We'll be
meeting with the Radiation Oncologist tomorrow, but we expect that
Lesley will begin radiation treatment shortly.  That will consist of 5
days a week treatment for 6 weeks.  After that we'll probably do
chemotherapy but we will be looking into clinical trials.

For now, Lesley is in HEALTHSOUTH New England Rehabilitation Hospital in
Woburn where they are working with her so she can safely return home.
We expect that she will be there for only a week or so.  She is feeling
pretty good, with less headaches.  For those of you who looked at her
pictures after surgery, her black eyes have gone way down :-).

If you who would like further information on brain tumors I offer you
the following sites as starting points (thanks to Ray Galloni the
elder):

http://home.earthlink.net/~sdepesa/index.html

http://brain.mgh.harvard.edu/

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.  We'll continue to need
them.

Dave