After a visit to the dentist last Thursday for a toothache/ pain and numbness in his jaw, that turned out not to be a dental problem, we found ourselves at an unscheduled review with Bren’s medical team yesterday.

This is an update on where Bren is at – as I heard it:

There was some not very good news & some really good news: Not good is that the problem in Brens jaw is a new tumour, there is also a new one in his L2 (spine) and I think another rib. This indicates that the disease is still progressing.

We have known that to be the case for the last year, that hasn’t changed – that’s the bad news.

The good news is, although the chemo tablets aren’t stopping the disease (we knew they probably wouldn’t) they are definitely slowing it down. (Where there’s life there’s hope!)

Other than having cancer, Bren looks well and feels pretty good.

The really good news is, Brens Oncologist has a colleague he works closely with, who is part of a team that has started a new cancer treatment trial. (It only started two weeks ago) Bren has been asked if he would like to be a part of that trial. It sounds like this treatment could be groundbreaking and change the way cancer is treated in the future…it is early days of course, so there is a long way to go, that said, Bren is getting in on the cutting edge of what might be 😀

I’m quietly excited about this and we are now waiting to hear from the trial team to get started.

Between now and then Bren will have radiation on the spots that have come up to control any tumour related pain, and from what I understand to hopefully reduce some activity in the tumours that have presented.

The featured picture with this post is a glimpse of what the continued research into cancer can do for many cancer suffers and the families who love them. It is a picture of Brendan living with cancer while currently having his treatment through a daily chemotherapy tablet, at home.

Life’s Good & Hope is limitless

I have a good feeling about this 🙂