Stable MRIs!!!

We are grateful to report another stable MRI! No change in size of the tumor at all since his last scan in April, which is about 1.1 cm. His oncologist believes that the tumor may not decrease in size anymore at this point in time since his treatment with CRT ended. I will still always pray and believe for it to be gone someday!

Matt. 19:26: Jesus looked at them and said, "With man
this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Everything went well, all his other tests and appointments were good too. We had an encouraging appointment in audiology. His hearing tests were stable, and we were offered to try out a new CROS, a "crossover" type of hearing aid, for his right ear. This would enable Colin to have a sense of more directional hearing. He will still hear only in his left ear with his left side hearing aid, but the CROS is worn on the right. The CROS (contralateral routing of signal) system features a microphone behind the ear that feeds the amplified signal to the better ear, eliminating "head shadow," which occurs when the head blocks sound from the better ear. We were told that he will either love it or hate it! So we will give it a try. Colin is excited about checking this out. They always take such great care of Colin!! The last time we were there in April, he got an upgraded hearing aid! I thought we already had the best, but they surprised us with the latest and greatest again. Colin put it on and he said he heard things differently and better. He told me "I hear everything now!" He loves it.

Colin and I went outside in between appointments and got to see an event for St. Jude's from a group called Corvettes 4 St. Jude. They raise money for the hospital at car shows and various fundraisers. The guys were so kind and encouraged the kids to sit in their cars and tell them about things in the car, and get their picture taken in new corvettes. At the end of the event, they presented a check for $75,000 for St. Jude's! Colin was sitting in an '07 C6 Corvette in this picture. The cars were wrapped around the front drive at St. Jude's and in the adjacent parking lots. It was so emotional to see all these people love on these kids and support St. Jude's.

On Monday evening, we got to spend time with our friends Jordan and his mom Susan again! A storm came through Memphis and it rained all evening so we didn't venture out to the uptown area for dinner. But that didn't change much, we had so much fun spending a lot of time together there at the hospital that evening. Jordan's MRI was great too, stable again!! Jordan and Colin have a similar type of brain tumor. On Wednesday, we flew out at almost the same time on Wednesday and got to meet again for lunch at the airport! That is where I took this picture of them together.

Our friends Jake and his mom Holly came in on Tuesday. We took a trolley uptown for dinner early in the evening. We were having fun up there but it got dark so fast! We were worried about walking back to St. Jude's at night. The trolley only goes to a certain point and then we have to walk the rest back to the hospital. Part of the walk back is in a questionable area, in which I would not choose to be after dark! We were waiting at the trolley stop when a horse and carriage stops and asks us if we need to go somewhere, "which would be more fun than riding on that trolley car!" He knew we were from St. Jude's and told us to just pay for the tip and he'd be happy to take us back. So we took his offer and climbed on! The boys asked him about his horse and we got to hear the life story about Bob the carriage horse, who was purchased from an Amish farm. He had worked his whole life, hard labor pulling plows and not much time for play, and now Bob had the good life. We learned that Bob is agitated being in his stable all day but when it is time to head uptown he stands still for his gear to be put on and skips out of his stable as soon as the reins are on. It was hilarious hearing the stories about Bob. Well we were reaching the end of the horse and carriage ride course, and to our surprise our driver directs Bob to go down the creepy road we would have had to walk back on (where we passed two police cars patrolling the area, if that tells you a little about this part of town). Holly asks our driver "You actally ARE going all the way to St. Jude's?!", and he says "Well yes, Bob will go wherever I tell him to go! And we are going to get you to St. Jude's!". He was so kind and tells us how much he loves to help anyone at St. Jude's. So we begin discreetly reaching into our purses again for some more "tip money"!! Sure enough, Bob reaches the gates at St. Jude's. The driver invites us to walk over to say hello to Bob. So we got to spend time with Bob, petting and admiring him. I couldn't get over how beautiful he is. He is a Belgian Draft horse, which is one size under a Clydesdale. He was so affectionate with us, and I believe he truly has the good life now. I really wish I could have gotten a picture of the boys with Bob! I'll be sure to do that next time. Holly and Jake will be back for their six-month checkups in April with us. We will go uptown again, and be sure to ask the horse and carriage drivers for Bob!

I checked with Holly on Thursday, and Jake's scan came back stable again. Yeah!!

Thank you for continuing to pray for Colin, and please pray for all the children at St. Jude's.