So much of Grace's story is about waiting for news. This time, it was for the results of an all-day assessment at Dartmouth last Wednesday, including EKG, MRI, regular oncology checkup, ophthalmology and audiology. Short story: All great news!
Back story: From the beginning, Grace was compliant and helpful about wearing her hearing aid. But two or three weeks ago, she started to balk, saying that God was healing her ear so she didn't need it anymore. Anecdotal evidence indicated that her hearing had, indeed, improved, and you can see from the report below that the audiologist agreed. [For the one person reading this who knows what the numbers mean, they went from 38 to 80.] So instead of getting fitted for a permanent hearing aid as planned (to replace the rented one), they were told that if she doesn't want to wear one, she doesn't need to!
Grace could also teach us adults about how to deal with getting an MRI: It took her about 60 seconds after getting into the machine to fall asleep.
Here's the overall report, excerpted from Heather's post.
Wednesday's many tests all went well. The MRI showed shrinkage of the tumor, especially around the ear canal (less so in the cheek/salivary gland.) The hearing test confirmed Grace's attestation that her right ear is significantly improved. Her eyes are still perfect. Her heart is also good, no changes.
So we praise and thank God for these results. And continue to pray for the tumor to shrink to nothing and for no side effects from the selumetinib. She occasionally has diarrhea, but one half dose of Imodium every couple of weeks is enough to keep it at bay. The nutritionist also gave us a list of binding foods that had more in it than the classic banana that Grace is kind of tired of. (:
Deo Gratias!
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The estimated 38% to 80% was for "soft speech", I forget the decibel level. And she went from 78% to 97% for normal speech.
Her left ear remains at 99%.
The worst frequency response was at the 250Hz level, with the higher/normal speech range frequencies were within or close to normal levels.
We had the note about the helix lock so I asked what that was, and she said that this particular company that makes the ear molds are fairly short, and so she always asks for a "extended" version, and she said the helix lock is longer than that, and is appropriate if we were having trouble with it falling out, but we never did, and since it fits so snugly, she would be concerned that we would have trouble getting it out at night. I don't know if there are any hearing related/non-physical reasons to get the lock...
Deo gracias!
