February 13

Happy Friday the 13th!

We are happy to report that Friday the 13th was a pretty good day for us. We went to see Dr. Meena, who said she is astounded at Denny's progress. She told him that if had not been in such good physical condition prior to the cancer diagnosis, he would never have survived the blood clot fiasco. Her theory for the tumor maintaining at status quo, is that Den's body is currently concentrating on the recovery from the damage done to his lungs and legs by the clots and the tumor will get more attention later on.
Going forward, she is cautiously reducing the steroids by 1/2 milligram per day, so now he is at 6 1/2 per day and will remain there for a couple of weeks. There still is some edema around the tumor, so she isn't sure just how low we can go on the dexamethosone. We'll just take it slowly and be extremely watchful for the danger signs.
Dr. Meena wants to have Denny go through two more rounds of chemotherapy and then she wants to have him assessed in Madison. That was kind of a surprise to us, because we've been told that the tumor has to be 2 centimeters or less before any stereotactic surgery can be considered. We are happy to have a doctor who is so thorough, so we will do whatever she and Steve Howard tell us to do.
So, Denny will continue with the physical therapy at the clinic and at home, massage therapy, and as soon as the weather is consistently nice, he'll get outside to do more walking. He's hoping to spend a few hours each week at school, doing enough to keep him connected with the students and his fellow teachers. The one thing he knows he cannot do is to do too much. I think he's learned that lesson!!
Today these are the plans, but we know every day is new and subject to change, so we'll keep you posted as we move forward. Have a wonderful Valentine's weekend!!!

Love,
Carla