Going to Mytilini... God has to help us to win this fight, and on this island as I mentioned before,  locates the monastery of one of his best ambassadors...Taxiarchis... We look for the miracle and hoping for the best results in the upcoming MRI.  Excep the religious part, it is agood chance for all of us to relax a bit with a small trip... 

It is the first time after the diagnosis that I take some pictures...

Since Dimitris is in good shape, and his blood tests quite normal, we decided to try to send him back to school... Seeing again his friends could be helpful... It didn't prove to be a good idea... His extra kilos from cortisone and the few missing hair around ears caused many comments from his friends and he didn't want to go anymore... No problem... He will continue to do some private lessons at home... The school management is extremely cooperative and helps us a lot... A big thanks for them...

MRI day and we hope that we may have won... Waiting for the results looks like ages... When doctor comes out he talks with mixed emotions... Yes, we managed to shrink the tumor for more than 50%... But it is still there... Much smaller, but present... We don't know if it is still active or not, only time will show... We start again chemotherapy, and we hope that tumor will not start growing again... Reacting to the treatment and shrinking the tumor is seen as a good sign by our doctors, so we have to celebrate it with a good dinner... Dimitris always appreciates a good meal!

Next MRI will be performed in 3 months.

After our MRI we have started again our chemotherapy protocol.  3 weeks on, 1 week free...  However, although Dimitris was always able to take his pills, during last days he shows some reluctancy... Taking a pill has become a ritual... It takes more than 15 minutes, and several attempts to finally make it... It is clearly psychological, and we try to find new tricks everyday... Some nausea is also there, especially in the morning, and since we have also stopped cortisone, Dimitris' appetite is in decline.

First time after almost three months that Dimitris has "strange" sleep... Noises, small cries, a lot of movemet... We had this kind of symptoms just before diagnosis... It is not possible that symptoms return so fast... Or is it??? 

Immediate meeting with doctors and we decide to go for an MRI, one month earlier than scheduled...

MRI at a different hospital this time... Results? Totally confusing... The tumor appears some milimeters bigger... But no doctor can say that the disease progresses since it is a different MRI machine and some milimeters can be just a statistical error... But noone looks very happy...

Thoughts for the next step start arising in my mind... Cyberknife is a radiaton technique that could possible help... I start immediately looking for alternatives.

There is specialist hospital in Sweden, Karolinska, with big experience in this area.

Reply from Karolinska says that Jimmy "would benefit" from a Cyberknife treatment. What does this mean??? I sent them a big list of questions, which created even bigger uncertainty...

Greek doctors look quite confused... Cyberknife is an alternative, but will give more radiation to a very sensitive area of the brain that is already exposed to a huge amount of radiation from the initial tratment.  They look relactant to do it, unless we have concrete signs of progress of the disease... Since we don't have any, they propose not to do it... We accept their opinion and decide to wait for the next MRI scheduled for beginning of May, despite Karolinksa's opposite opinion.

3rd MRI shows that there is a further very slight increase in the size of the tumor... Despite that, doctors remain uncertain since they also notice a big necrosis inside the tumor... This could be good...  Clinical condition of Dimitris remains the same, so they do not want to risk anything with extra radiation... We just sit and wait...

Dimitris birthday today... We should be happy... but we are not... One simple question is stuck in my mind... Is that the last birthday of my son???

This question becomes stronger because last days I noticed a small deterioration in his walking... 

What I was afraid and noticed during last days happened today in a very aggressive way... Dimitris hardly walks...  Symptoms are back... Chemotherapy apparently didn't manage to do anything... The only thing that worked a bit was radiation... New MRI (that confirms a third in a row slight increase) and our last weapon is Cyberknife and switching chemodrugs...