Second Opinion

Today we had an adventure in San Francisco. We took Beckett to UCSF to get a second opinion from a doctor there about his chemo treatment. Since our appoinment was at 9 and we didn't realy know where we were going or where to park we left at 6:15. It was raining a little but all was well. We got into SF around 8:15 so we had a few minutes to sit in the cafe and have some coffee before our appointment.

We had a bit of trouble with the insurance issue, but it seems to have worked itself out. We met Dr. Banerjee and went over the history of the case with her. She discussed with us some of the chemo options as well as the possibility of holding off on continuing chemo at this point if the Feb. 5 scan shows a decrease in size or stable tumor. She said she would lean towards that for a kid, like Beckett who was not currently demonstrating visual problems. This would be in conjunction with MRIs every 3-6 months and opthalmology visits every 3-6 months. She said if we go this route, at some point down the road, it is possible, even likely that he will need more chemo or even radiation to preserve his vision. (Prognosis for optic glioma is better for kids with NF1 than kids who get optic glioma out of the blue.) Of course, if the tumor has grown then we will continue to treat. She will call us on Friday to let us know what she would recommend as treatment if this should occur.

Beckett otherwise is doing great. He says so many cute things we can't keep up. For example, he always says, "Not bedtime... cause its (blank) time." Fill in any preferrable activity to bedtime such as "Watch Diego time" or "eat cereal time". A not so cute development is that he says, "Actually" a lot. For example, if we say, "That's daddy's phone, " he'll say, "Um, actually, Beckett's." He does this quite often.

He is getting excited about the new baby too. He likes to feel the baby kick (which happens a lot) and he recently is enjoying our new double sit and stand stroller. We're not sure how he'll respond to an actual baby though.