Facebook post: Progress as of 31 Dec 2020

I had my last radiation treatment yesterday. The treatments only addressed the mass at L2, which has been giving me intense lower back pain. That pain is starting to abate. The real problem is with the mass at T10/T11. That's the one that could paralyze me from that point down.

I talked with the radiologist, Dr. Shah, on 29 December. He gave me the results of the MRI from Christmas Eve. He had discussed it with the surgeon earlier and it seems surgery is an option. Unfortunately, that surgery is a tough one, and to do it while I'm having lower back pain wouldn't be fun. Evidently, the threat of pinching off the spinal cord and paralysis isn't imminent, so they will wait two months for the pain to go away and do another MRI to see whether to operate or not. Obviously, if I start losing feeling or the use of my lower extremities it becomes an emergency and I go straight to surgery. The bad news is surgery won't get all of the mass and I don't know whether they have a plan to get rid of that.

Let's pray 2021 is a better year. I thank God He's in charge, otherwise I'd be scarred.

4/29/2021 Some might not be aware that Joe flew west Monday the 12th of April. I will keep his FB site open a while longer, but will be shutting it down in the near future.
I thank God he's at rest with no more pain.
Diane Richardson