7/25: A Mixed Bag

We finally got a chance to speak to the radiologist, Dr. Vsevolod Dolgopolov, about Leo's PET scan from Friday. The activity captured on the PET scan was on the right-hand side of the brain stem, whereas the tumor is more towards the left. This seems to imply that the activity the last MRI showed was related to the damage that the 2 doses of radiation caused, such as destroying/weakening vessel walls and the Myelin Sheath. There wasn't much hypermetabolic uptake in the tumor, which means no increased activity so the tumor isn't growing very quickly. At the end of the day, there's no guaranteed to way to tell exactly what's going on, but when comparing the MRI to the PET, the above made sense. This is definitely good news because it's not a fast growing/high grade tumor. The downside, if it can be called that, is that lower grade tumors take longer to respond to treatment of any sort, including antineoplastons. But if it's just a matter of duration of treatment, that's fine, as long as we can see some kind of improvement.

Least, but not last, another day, another blood test (we now say the word "blood" with a Texan twang, just like nurse Louise). Needless to say the port didn't work, but the heplock in Leo's hand eventually did, so not only are they testing electrolytes, but also doing a Complete Blood Count (CBC), which includes red cells, white cells, etc. We'll probably get those results in a few days.

Finally met with the nutritionist and were told what everyone already knows.

• A balanced diet of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.
• Sodium up to 1000mg per day.
• Lots and lots of fluids, but especially water. No sports drinks since they sometimes have sodium.
• Lots and lots of fruit and vegetables. We should clean all fruits and vegetables with one of those special washes and not just plain water to remove any wax, polish, pesticides, herbicides, and other crap on the plant.
• Limit milk, even the organic kind. This is because the cows may still be eating grass/whatever that was treated with pesticides, herbicides, and other crap, which finds its way into milk. Even if cows eat the freshest grass available, if the fields are polluted (i.e. lead, acid rain, etc.) that junk gets into the milk. So we should consider soy milk as an alternative.
• Soy milk is ok. We need to look for not just organic, but non-genetically modified soy products. Some brilliant scientists figured out how to incorporate pesticides into the genes/DNA of the plant (at least that's what we were told), so we need to ensure we're buying stuff that's as clean and pure as possible.
• Processed foods are basically out of the question. That means anything with nitrates, nitrities, and similar chemicals. This excludes all deli meats and cheeses, unless they're organic, non GMO, etc. But then we have to watch-out for the sodium content.
• Finally, nothing that's been bleached, enriched, hydrogenated, or otherwise processed. This excludes everything like white bread, margarine, pre-packaged peanut butter, sugary goods, etc.

Fortunately that means our diet doesn't drastically have to change, but we do need to make some adjustments.

Most importantly, our little butterball was in a bad mood most of the morning because he didn't sleep very well (just 4 hours at night) and didn't eat breafast. So it was probably a combination of exhaustion and hunger. After a nice lunch, he starting giggling and laughing and even squealing with joy and all became well again.