"The LORD your God is with you,

he is mighty to save.

He will take great delight in you,

he will quiet you with his love,

he will rejoice over you with singing."

Zephaniah 3:17

We decided awhile back to stop writing on our blog, mainly because things had been going fine for some time and there had been nothing new to share. However, people ask from time to time how I’m doing, so we thought we’d share about my recent appointment!


Back in January, I started experiencing muscle tightness in my neck and throat. The only other time this had happened was for several weeks during and after treatment.  It’s so hard for me to explain what it is exactly…it’s just a slight tightness or perhaps twitching that occurs in my neck & throat area, usually after I’ve been talking a lot. It’s not painful, just more of an annoyance. In the last month, however, it became much more frequent. Because it was something I dealt with during treatment, it became a concern for me…of course my first thoughts were…the tumor has spread…the tumor has grown and is pressing on more nerves…We prayed this wasn’t the case!

I emailed my doctor a few days before my scheduled MRI on May 7, letting him know that this had been happening again and asked if I could have more tests done. Back when I experienced it during treatment, they couldn’t figure out what it was and they just said they’d keep an eye on it. So they scheduled me for an additional MRI of my spinal cord, along with the regular brain MRI. Usually when I go to my appointments, I have little fear…I have felt great so I have no concern about what the scan will show. So this was the first time I started to feel anxious again. I had to repeat some of the verses that helped me through treatment…Trust in the Lord (Proverbs 3:5-6)…Do not be anxious about ANYTHING (Philippians 4:4-7)…The peace that surpasses all understand will guard your hearts (Philippians 4:4-7)…To Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:14-21)...

We were so excited to find out that day that there was nothing showing up on the spinal cord scan! The radiologist’s report wasn’t back yet, but my doctor couldn’t see anything. The report for the brain MRI was finished and the radiologist called the tumor stable again!

My doctor always shows us the scans and compares them side-by-side with my previous scan (usually from 6 months ago). He did the same this time and you could see that it was pretty close to identical. But we asked if he could compare it to two years ago (just to make sure there wasn't small growth occuring like was the case several years ago). He said sure…and I’m pretty sure there was a moment of stunned silence as Dr. Smith, Zac, and I all looked in awe at my current scan next to one from November 2009 (4 months after treatment). It was quite a bit smaller! My doctor was very pleased...as were we!. It’s apparently been getting smaller over the last two years, just at a slow enough rate that it’s harder to see in smaller periods of time!

He decided to refer me on to a head & neck doctor though to see if we can figure out my neck issues. I’ll go back to Iowa City May 30th for a swallow study and more appointments. My MRI showed that my spinal cord is as straight as can be, so that could be part of the problem, but may not be. Zac and I like to have fun and have concluded that it’s my nerves, previously damaged by the tumor, starting to work again now that they don’t have the pressure of the tumor on them. Sounds logical, don't you think?  ; ) We’ll let you know how the next appointment goes!