Another Good Scan

Yesterday the 5 of us spent the day at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics. Jude had another follow-up MRI. I had been really nervous and not able the sleep the night before the scan. But, it turned out well. We were told the scan looked good. The neurosurgeon who operated on Jude will also review the images and if we don’t hear anything further, that means he agrees with the radiologist and oncologist that nothing is going on. There is one bright block of tissue on the images that is likely scar tissue, but tumor cells also show up as bright spots. It appears to have shrunk slightly, making them feel more confident that it is scar tissue. Jude is in remission and hopefully that doesn’t change. We learned something that we found quite surprising — that even if the cancer never comes back, Jude won’t be considered cured until 20 years after the surgery since his type of cancer (ependymoma) is such a slow growing type of tumor. So, he’ll have regular MRIs for at least 20 years. Crazy.