Ok, so I'm a little behind. For that I apologize. I was in Medford visiting for 11 days from September 30th to October 10th. The first weekend of my trip Benny, Jenny, and Dave were up in Portland at Doernbecher for tests to see how Ben was progressing in his fight. He had a heart test, a hearing test, and I think maybe a visions test, and possibly one other test to see how the chemo was affecting his body. All of the tests came back good. The kid is strong and his body is doing fine with the chemo. They also did another MRI to see how the tumor had reacted to the chemo. When the MRI results came back we found out that the tumor has already shrunk by 85%! That was great news. The doctors told Jenny and Dave they could go home but would need to return this week (the week of the 11th) for an IMBG test. This is a test where they inject Bennet with a dye or ink. I believe it is radioactive though I could be wrong about that. In any event the dye/ink is somehow able to search out any cancerous cells and light them up in another sort of scan. So this week on Tuesday Ben was injected with this stuff and on Wednesday he had the scan. Basically the doctors did this in order to see if the remaining 15% of the tumor was a sort of scar tissue or if it was still cancerous. Today the results of the scan came back. It turns out that there are still cancerous cells in the 15% that remains. I don't know how much of it is cancerous or if all 15% is. What I know is that Ben with have to undergo more chemo. He will have one more round (not sure when or how many days at this point) and then in three weeks they will head to Portland again for another MRI to see what this round does to what remains of the tumor.
Obviously, this is not the news were all hoping for today. But in my mind, its still positive. Ben and the chemo have already taken out 85% of what seemed to me to be a huge tumor, especially in someone so little. The kid is obviously a fighter. And really, that 85% has been destroyed in just under four months. We all want Benny to be healthy again and for Dave and Jenny to get back to a normal life with their little man. But, they don't get to do that just yet. But after 85%, we're hoping that this last 15% will be a walk in the park. The good news is that the cancer hasn't spread and its just that 15% that remains. My guess is that Benny will continue to fight the rest of this cancer the same way he did the first 85%. He'll continue to be a little trooper with a smile on his face and laughing. Luckily for him, he has two loving parents that have been very strong through all of this. We should all be so lucky to have parents like them willing to fight for us. Plus, well, they all have a hell of a support group behind them. Please, when you have a minute, continue to send good thoughts and prayers to Ben, Jenny, and Dave.
I know I continue to learn life lessons from little Ben day in and day out.
F*ck cancer, I ride with Clyde!
Jake
