PS

I just wanted to add a PS to what Mike wrote.

The reason Jaimee had such a bad day is because yesterday morning (Thursday) Jaimee had a grand mal seizure. It is common for people to sleep for hours after that, yet Jaimee was unable to get the rest she should have yesterday.

We were a bit concerned that she had it because she had received so much medication we thought the abscess would have shrunk. As it turns out, there was a reason. After her treatment Wedneday the doctor told her to rest and avoid stress. She ended up rushing Finn to Primary Childrens' ER that evening. By the time she and Raheem got home it was late. The doctor told her yesterday the stress was what probably brought on the seizure. BTW, Finnley is fine but there was some concern for a while.

Anyway, everyone is helping her as much as possible so she can get the rest she needs (right! with 3 small children).

We appreciate your love and concern and hope it helps to receive updates via the blog as some have many questions.

Rough day today

Today wasn't a great day. Jaimee felt really sick this morning. She felt like she had a fever, but she doesn't think it was actually a fever. She felt nauseous and didn't eat for most of the day and her head hurt too much to even watch TV. She talked to the doctor's office and they weren't concerned by this. These symptoms are not unusual for someone with a brain abscess.

The doctor said she could skip the antibiotics today, since she was feeling so crappy. So she was able to stay in bed and get some rest. She has had 4 days of good antibiotic treatment, so missing one day wouldn't be a problem. Tomorrow she will go get more antibiotics, and another IV.

One big problem with IVs is Jaimee's veins are so bad, there are very few veins they can use. If they use a bad vein, it can disintegrate minutes after the IV goes in, so they have to start all over. To get to the best vein, they have to go thru her wrist (palm side), which is more painful than a typical IV. And after 4 days of IVs, her arms are really sore.

Hopefully her good veins will hold out. She is scheduled for another scan on Monday, and we won't get the results until Tuesday. Hopefully the scan will show that the antibiotics are working and the abscess is getting better.

A brain abscess

So we have some good news today. Last week, Jaimee had a brain scan. The radiologist (who is on the Huntsman Cancer Institute's tumor board) said it may not be a tumor. It may be a brain abscess. She went in yesterday and they started her on heavy antibiotics and steroids.

Today her doctor confirmed that it's an abscess and not a tumor. So, that's good news. Her doctor said if you had to choose between a tumor and an abscess, you'd rather have the abscess. But that doesn't mean an abscess is nothing to sniff at. An abscess is life threatening if not treated.

We don't know yet how bad her abscess is. The longer an abscess is there, the harder the shell around it gets, which makes treating it with antibiotics less effective. So the key is early detection. Not sure yet how hard this one will be to treat, but one good sign is yesterday Jaimee had a really bad headache, she started antibiotics intravenously, and today her headache is better than it was.

For now, every day she needs to go in for a 3 hour session of IV antibiotics, and then they will do another brain scan to see how the abscess looks. We'll keep you updated.

First post

My name is Mike Thiriot. Last year my sister Jaimee was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It was causing many problems for her (headaches, insomnia, vision problems, ect). In order to fight the tumor, she had to endure two rounds of medication. Each round lasted 60+ days, and the medication made her much sicker than the tumor had. The doctor hoped that the medication would shrink the tumor.

After months of medication, the tumor shrank enough that her doctor was satisfied. She was able to go off the medication and resume her life. This was less than a month ago.

Last week she was told that she has another tumor, an inoperable tumor. This tumor wasn't there a few months ago, so it must have grown quickly. She will see her doctors next week and learn what the best course of action will be to fight this.

This blog is created to document her fight. Hopefully there will be no problems with medical insurance and medical bills, and we are confident that she will beat this tumor.