Thursday I went through my, different but now normal, process of an MRI. I briefly spoke with my doctor on the phone Friday to assure that things looked good before the weekend (they did). Monday morning I met with him in person and actually got to see the MRI image. There's not that much else to report. Literally, the remaining tumor, or scar tissue, or whatever it actually is, is minuscule (although not much can actually be considered minuscule when dealing with a brain tumor I guess). Because of it's current small size, and because it has only trended toward smaller, our strategy is to continue down the same path. Slow and steady wins the race right?
What to attribute my current circumstances to is uncertain. I take chemo pills for five days in a row every four weeks for a year. My 11th round of chemo pills starts in early April. My 12th, and final, round starts in early May. I also take a clinical trial drug daily. I remains unclear if I would have responded similarly without the trial drug. I still would have had the same chemotherapy and radiation regardless. But now, once chemo ends, I will continue with the trial drug. That may help shed some light on whether the drug has any effect on its own.
The plan going forward - I was interested so in the case that you are too - is to continue taking the trial drug. As long as it doesn't produce any ill side effects I will keep taking those 12 pills a day. That continuance should lend more insight into the drug's effectiveness. Additionally I will continue with MRIs approximately every two months to allow more monitoring of the situation. So, roughly every two months I'll get to see another status update!