We have been consulting with Dr. Kushner from Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York almost from the very beginning. Long story short, he does not believe that Gabs needs any chemo at all. Although there is slow steady growth in her residual tumors, he would call them "stable" and would recommend no treatment. We decided that we needed to finally meet him (and have him meet Gabrielle) in person so we booked a flight and went to New York City about 2 weeks ago.
We have decided, after extensive conversations with Dr. Kushner and Dr. LaQuaglia to suspend treatment for now and continue to "wait and watch".
We are taking this on a scan by scan basis as neither Jeremiah or I feel that we we can "watch and wait" forever given the location of her tumors. If they continue to grow we may still attempt chemo in the future in the hopes to stop their growth before they hit her spinal cord. Again, scan by scan basis. We will try and wait as long as possible in the hopes that they will stop growing on their own (as Dr. Kushner believes they will) but will most likely choose chemo over another surgery if it looks like they are getting too invasive in her spine.
As always, thank you for all of your continued prayers and support. We are so blessed and touched every time someone sends a message or a gift. We are so incredibly grateful that Gabs is so healthy right now but I personally deal with a lot of emotional ups and downs and your prayers keep me sane.
Our next MRI is scheduled for September so other than our monthly trips to Grand Rapids for her urine tests, it's a normal summer for us. I may not post again until the September scan.