Missy and our parents headed up to the NIH last week for her follow up scan following her six weeks back on Avastin. The tumor had an amazing response to the medication and is dramatically smaller! This is such wonderful news and we feel truly blessed.
The doctors explained to Melissa and our parents that there are three categories of people when it comes to Avastin. There are the people who do not respond at all, then there are the short term responders and the long term responders. There is no way to know if Missy is short term or long term, but the fact that she has been on the medication for nine months and during those nine months it was continually effective in suppressing tumor growth is a very good sign. All we can do now is leave her on this medication and closely monitor any tumor activity. There are "Long Term Avastin Responders" who have been on the medication for years and it continues to work. We continue to pray that Missy will be one of these people. Time will tell, but for now this was absolutely the very best news we could have received.
Thank you all for your continued prayers and support of Missy and our family. We are so thankful for you all. She will go back up to the NIH in two months. I will update again at that time to let you know how she is doing.
