A Momentous Day

Rilley fighting the after effects of his MRI anaesthetic.
Getting sleepy...very, very sleepy.

This past Thursday (Feb. 10) marked a momentous day in our journey with Rilley.  It has been six months since that awful day in August when Rilley had his first seizure.  When he was diagnosed a month later with the meningioma the prognosis was so bleak.  Even if we had employed all therapeutic options available to us (surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, anti seizure medications) realistically we were only looking at having Rilley with us for 6 months.  As it was explained to me the problem with these types of tumors is not their ability to spread, but rather the fact that even once removed they grow back so quickly and start to put pressure on the brain.  Further, there comes a time when the seizures can no longer be adequately controlled by medication.  This is a problem which we were already starting to see with Rilley before his surgery.  This was when Roy & I started having very serious discussions about Rilley's quality of life if the seizures continued.

Sleepy pooch.

For us, we didn't have to watch Rilley's seizures continue because shortly thereafter he had his surgery and started receiving his immunotherapy vaccines.  The amazing combination of this treatment is that it removed the tumor and the vaccine got rid of the small amount of tumor cells that were left behind and has stopped any further tumor growth.

We are so thrilled that thanks to the amazing combination of surgical skills and research of  Dr. Liz Pluhar,  Dr. John Ohlfest, Dr. Matthew Hunt and the entire staff at The Ohlfest Brain Tumor Lab, Rilley will be with us long past the 6 months since his first seizure. 

Congratulations my little pooch!!!  Let's see what mischief and merriment you can create for us all in the coming 6 months!!!  Watch out Dr. Ewing the real Rilley is back!!!