Slow and Steady

Since he dropped (his steroid level) to 10mg daily last month, Andy has done quite well; thankfully he hasn't seen any significant increase in symptoms.  Our fingers are still crossed, but so far, so good!  On February 1, he had a repeat set of MRIs and this morning we received great news:

• Brain:  He still has a few remaining lesions but they are similar in appearance to his previous scans and there are no new lesions detected.

• Cervical Spine:  There is still one decent-sized lesion, but it is less pronounced than in the last scan.  

• Thoracic Spine:  There continue to be some areas of demyelination there, but they, too, are less pronounced and decreased in size than on the last scans.  No new lesions are observed. 

While we would obviously love clean scans, receiving news like this is very welcomed.  If you recall, before he started treatment, he was losing is ability to walk, see, and having a host of other difficulties.  When looking at his first scans, they used words like "severe" and "innumerable," so now when they use words like "few" and "several" that is a huge win.  

Given his overall stability and good results, tomorrow he will taper again and begin taking 7.5mg of Prednisone daily.  They'll be monitoring him closely, and he has both a bone density test and some labs coming up.  They want to make sure that his immune system is still quiet and essentially non-existent.  

We are praying for a few, specific things this month:

• Pray that his next infusion is approved soon.  Everything was submitted last month and it is still pending with our insurance company.  We don't know exactly when he'll need to have the next infusion, but when that time comes, we don't want there to be any delays because of insurance.  

• Please pray for continued protection against COVID and other seasonal illnesses.  They had warned us that he won't be able to fight things off well anymore and we're seeing that play out now.  He has a cold, just an annoying cold, but he's had it for almost two months and he can't shake it.  With a cold it's not a huge issue, but with a more serious illness things could get problematic.  

• Pray for his overall well-being as he navigates life with this disease.  While he looks amazing right now, there are unseen things that he deals with on a daily basis, including a lot of fatigue. It gets him down sometimes, and it can make work difficult at times.  

We're looking forward to the weeks ahead...the Super Bowl (gathering with friends), Valentine's Day, my birthday, and hopefully a trip to visit our son in Colorado!  It's nice to have some happy things to look forward to!