Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Radiation treatments are over!!! Joe came home with "The Mask" and it is sitting high on the fireplace mantel. Joe thinks we should spray paint it gold!

Dr Crocker lowered the steroid dosage from 6mg to 4mg today which will put Joe back where he was before Dr Crocker lowered it to 2mg which resulted in some side effects that made for a bad weekend.

Dr Voloschin took Joe off the trial drug, Hydroxychloroquine because his platelets had lowered more to 74,000. Normal is around 150,000-170,000. To administer the chemo drug, Temodar the platelets have to be over 100,000. If 20,000 or lower, that requires an infusion. By taking him off the trial drug this will allow us to see if the platelets rise, than we can blame the trial drug. If they remain the same or lower, then Dr Voloschin will change the anti-seizure drug, Zeppra to another drug. This will determine if Zeppra is causing the lower platelets. If it is not the Zeppra, then he will have to change the chemo drug, Temodar to another chemo drug . If that happens then there is a good chance it will be Avastin which will be administered through IV every two weeks. We have the time to try all of this because starting tomorrow Joe is in the "rest period". This time allows the brain/tumor area to "calm down" from the radiation treatment so that the MRI & PET scan will give the doctors an accurate reading on how the treatment affected the tumor.

Hope this was not too confusing. Sentence structure and grammar were never my forte'.

Joe & Josie will be returning to work on Monday barring any unforeseen calamities.