New treatment plan

There's never a good way to start communication when the news isn't good, so I'll just start. We met with the Duke doctors yesterday morning and they are switching up Jason's treatment because the tumor is growing with a significant increase in swelling. We stayed another night in Duke so that Jason could get his first round of treatment here at Duke. His new treatment is underway as I write this entry. He is now taking a intravenous chemotherapy along with a newer drug that is meant to stop the growth of new blood vessels which essentially starves the cancer cells. His treatments will be every 3 weeks and can last up to a year. We are not sure if we will need to fly to Duke every 3 weeks for the treatment to be completed or if we can do his treatments in Midland. It will depend on whether or not our insurance will cover the new medicine that Jason is taking as it is not currently approved for brain cancer--doctors say that it should be approved hopefully in 6 months. The drug is approved for a few different types of cancer already. I will be working on finding out as much information as possible over the next few days and will hopefully know if we will be flying out every 3 weeks. Most likely we will be coming to Duke for the next 2 treatments until all can be figured out.

I want all of you to know that Jason is still feeling very well. The doctors seem to be confident and hopeful with this new treatment. Please continue to pray for us as we determine where the best place is to continue his treatments, pray for Jason to continue to feel well over the coming weeks, pray that the medicines start to take effect immediately and stop the growth of the tumor, pray for shrinkage, and pray that we will find peace with all of the changes that may be coming our way. God has a plan for all of us--take comfort in that.