Steadman Family

Ben had his MRI this morning and the results are better than we expected. The new lesion in his brain is nearly gone. His tumor is approximately the same size. The areas of necrosis are slightly larger. Ben’s motor skills remain normal and his energy levels continue to improve.

So what does that mean for those of you who skipped pediatric neural-oncology in college?

Ben’s doing really well.

The doctors still don’t know what this new lesion is (soon to be was), but it’s really not a concern as it’s getting smaller and Ben has shown no symptoms to cause concern. It’s healing on its own; so let’s move on.

New necrosis in the tumor shows that it’s still being affected by the radiation and that cells continue to die. We like that. The necrosis does not appear to be happening at too rapid of a rate. We like that too. We want the tumor cells to die at a rate that his body can handle. Too slow and it really doesn’t make a difference; too fast and his brainstem could lose cohesion. It looks like we’re in the sweet spot where his body is taking care of business.

Not sure if that explanation made anything clearer.

Bottom line: Ben good; lesion healing; tumor dying.

The best part is that our next MRI will be in three months if Ben continues to show no symptoms. We like that best of all.