Let me first just start off by saying THANK YOU for everyone who texted to be part of our little secret project!  If you missed it, just go back one "Update" with the Subject of "Back to school..." for more details.  

It's hard to believe that we are coming up on 5 months since mom's diagnosis.  In some ways it still doesn't feel real.  At the same time, it feels like it's been with us forever.  Either way, it is our reality now and we continue to be so amazed and so grateful for all of the love and support that you all have poured out onto us.  We really wouldn't get through all of this without you and just cannot thank you enough.  

Mom/Kelsey had an appointment in Iowa City last week that went well.  She had bloodwork done (no MRI), which looked good.  They decided to up her dose of chemo (Temodar) to see how she does with that.  She finished that round of chemo at the higher dose this week.  She seems to have handled it well.  

Mom/Kelsey continues to have a limited appetite and sporadic bouts of nausea.  She is doing better with that now, though, than she was a few weeks ago, so that's good.  On the flip side, she's just so quiet.  We were told back in April that the one tumor they were not able to operate on is close to the part of her brain that controls language, so we believe that what she is experiencing is possibly "expressive aphasia". That said, she can still hear and read, so keep the messages coming!!

Photo: I couldn't decide what picture to include for this update, so I am sharing a picture of mom/Kelsey's brain scan pre-surgery.  The large tumor is what they operated one (but couldn't get all of it) and the small one they didn't not operate on.  Crazy, huh?!