Hope

Everyday Cassandra continues to improve. Her speech is getting faster and clearer. She ate some cookies and chicken last night. This morning she had eggs, biscuit and strawberries. She is more active, standing and taking wheelchair rides around the hospice home. Her top three complaints are her back (from being in bed so long), her grogginess (from the drugs), and her headaches. We have continued the same scheduled amount of painkillers she has been on for 3 days to make sure that her condition doesn't suddenly worsen.

The really good news is that Cassandra maybe able to go home soon. After talking with our Oncologist and the hospice doctor, a plan has been created to slowly introduce a pain patch. Using the pain patch will allow us to take her home since currently she is getting injections of drugs at the hospice home. Once we get her home we are going to have a MRI done to see what is going on in her brain. The last MRI we had showed a subtle area of development in her left frontal lobe and that is what is causing everything that is happening right now. My oncologist has a hunch that Cassandra had a "event". This event could have been a tumor rapidly growing and then exploding or a blood vessel in the brain rupturing and blood was leaking and now healed. If we get an MRI and it shows that she only has one area that is affected we can actively work to start treating the problem. If we get the MRI and there are multiple areas of development we will have to remain on hospice and it will only be a matter of time.

Cassandra continues to defy the doctors, odds, and show us what a truly courageous and strong fighter she is. I don't see a lot of tears in her room anymore, instead I see a lot of smiles. We still are against the odds and I have to say that she could still start going downhill at any moment but we are all running on the belief that she can continue to fight this.

Eric