Off-topic - Apologies for recent absence

[Thomas]

Special thoughts/prayers for your daughter and family.

 

[dieselcrawler]

Best of luck to your daughter, and whole family. I have no idea how you must feel, a simple pinched finger or bump on the head sends me into panic with my own kids... I admire your strength, holding it together. Warm wishes and prayers sent your way.

 

[GAFarmer2]

Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

 

[tcreeley]

Good luck to your daughter and family. Wishing you the best!

 

[Wagtail]

All the best to you and yours, Mate. Especially the (not so) littlie.

:thumbsup:

 

[PatrickS2222]

Many many thanks and loader-buckets of gratitude for everyone's support, encouragement and kind remarks. It is indeed wonderful to know there are so many tremendous people in this world who I've not yet met, but through various means have been helped with expertise or just worked, chainsawed prices or donated equipment/materials, you name it - people I do or don't know are stepping up each day. This makes me all the more convinced Jennifer is even more special to more people than we ever imagined.

This pic is about six years old:


Last year's Aussie Nationals medals:


Last year, in Aussie National Sports uniform:


Again, our family greatly appreciate everyone's caring and supportive words.

I'm sure if this can be beaten, Jennifer will beat it.

 

[shaeff]

Hi Patrick, my wife and I are very sorry to hear about your daughter and we'll keep her in our thoughts daily. Hope you all stay happy and healthy!

 

[PJSprog]

Thanks for sharing your story, and best wished for your daughter.

 

[PatrickS2222]

Apologies for my infrequent updates.
Thank you all for your best wishes and support. They most certainly mean a lot to me.
Jennifer had her first chemo- and radio-therapy treatment Wednesday March 8th, then the same again each weekday. So far there have been no side-effects - she's even been skating on some evenings after her radiology visit - but this is only the beginning of a six-week course of treatment. There will also need to be periodic visits for maintenance treatment as well.
The medical team collectively studied the images of her latest MRI, taken the previous Friday, with quite encouraging conclusions. The small percentage of remaining tumour appears to be low-grade and currently not likely to be aggressive, which suggests the treatment should be very effective.
For a short time they felt she required a second operation, but it is very close to the area that controls her motor-skills, which makes it extremely risky, and could result in her losing control of an arm or leg, or being even more severely disabled. This is exactly why the surgeon didn't remove it the first time - he said then that it was just too unsafe. That was prior to the last high-definition MRI, which showed a lot of what they needed to know.
It's been a mental roller-coaster ride for nine weeks now, but things look much better now than they have been. Fingers crossed this treatment works and the tumour doesn't reappear.

 

[Wagtail]

Ta for the update!