In This Together ~ The Craigs

Dear friends and family, Thank you for your continued prayers and thoughts for Marisa.  We wanted to share a brief update, and then share what we are thankful for in this season of gratitude. Post radioactive iodine treatment...  A "welcome home" signed for Marisa, authored by our nine and six year old.  Doctors remain pleased with Marisa's recovery at this point.  In fact, the doctor of nuclear medicine and the endocrinologist will wait until May before doing the next comparison scans.  This feels like both good and nerve-wracking news.  It is good news in the sense that there is nothing out of the normal projection of recovery that makes doctors want do more surveillance until the spring.  It is nerve-wracking in that we want to know as soon as possible if there are internal changes that come about.  Apparently though, with the slow growth rate of this cancer there should not be much to see either way prior to this six month check up. We are grateful! Thi

Dear friends and family, Marisa is continuing her solitude time away during her radioactive iodine treatment.  We are grateful for family and friends who have helped us throughout this last week to maintain consistency with our kids' schedules, meals, etc.  We are also thankful for our friends who have hosted Marisa in their additional "lodge" apartment on their property.   Marilyn (my mother in law) and the kids visiting Marisa as she snaps a picture from the upstairs window. Good news so far!  There were no surprises in Marisa's most recent scan.  The endocrinologist pointed out some remaining spots of cancer in her neck as expected, but he is confident that the radioactive iodine treatment will eradicate all of it.  At this point, the medical team is not seeing cancer in any other region of Marisa's body!  The doctor said that he "will feel even better" (more confident) after viewing the post-treatment scan results at the end of this week since

Dear friends and family, Today is the day.  At about 1:00 p.m. we will receive the results of Marisa's body scan, which will be followed by a dose of radioactive iodine.  The scan will reveal any remaining cancer in her neck, if present, and show if cancer has spread to other areas of her body.  The level of the RAI dose will depend on the results of the scan.  After that, Marisa will drive separately from the hospital to our friends' lodge where she will be isolated for the next seven days to reduce radiation exposure to others.  (More details about the procedure are in the previous post.)  This week, Marisa has traveled to and from Johns Hopkins everyday for outpatient preparation for this RAI treatment.  She has received a couple of doses of a thyroid hormone that has caused her to be very fatigued and nauseous for most of each day.  She also received a low test dose of radioactive iodine before her scan.  At this point, the nausea has gone away and the fatigue is not qu

Greetings! We are a bit behind on posting an update as life has been quite eventful recently.  Here is the latest... In our last couple of visits to Johns Hopkins we saw both the speech therapist and the endocrinologist.  The speech therapist examined Marisa's vocal folds with a camera that is able to capture movements in slow motion.  Within a matter of two weeks we saw tremendous improvement with the position of the vocal folds.  They are nearly able to fully close and open on their own.  At this point, there are still small leaks of air, but Marisa and I are thrilled!  Both her capacity to speak and breathe are improving at the same time.  Her voice is back almost 100%, she no longer has to take breaths between words, and we are celebrating that she has come so far! During Marisa's last appointment at Hopkins we also met up with Marisa's sister who traveled several hours to begin her thyroid cancer treatment with the same surgeon.  Marisa is one of five siblings. 

Dear friends and family, On July 4th, Marisa called me, as I was on an overnight trip with the kids, and said, "Do you hear this?!  I woke up with a voice!"  It is certainly not 100% but it is the strongest it has been since before her surgery in May.  We can even at times hear tones that sound like her regular voice.   Click here to listen to Marisa's message to you. The last time we were with the speech therapist and surgeon Marisa had a flicker of tone from her vocal folds.  At that point, we were surprised to hear that the vocal fold position that led to Marisa's phonation may also begin to further restrict her airway.  We are now celebrating this vocal improvement, and also eager for her next examination to learn what these changes mean.  At this point though, we are encouraged that Marisa's breathing seems to be remaining the same as her voice improves. This week we will meet with the endocrinologist to map out phase two of treatment.  Next week we

Dear friends and family, After a two week lull between appointments, Marisa and I were back at Johns Hopkins on Tuesday for another post-surgical examination.  The good news is that Marisa's calcium level has consistently remained at a normal level!  Her parathyroid glands are beginning to function well on their own.  (These are the glands that produce calcium, and they are often damaged in this type of surgery.)  We are grateful for this improvement as low calcium was one of the problems that kept Marisa in the hospital longer than expected. In the last few days we have been hearing a flicker of phonation, just above her whisper, on a more consistent basis.  At first, this was encouraging to us.  However, the medical team does not know yet if this indicates good or bad news.  Throughout the appointment the surgeon and speech therapist reminded us several times that Marisa's double vocal cord paralysis is a "medical mystery."  In fact, the speech therapist said