Our Li Fraumeni Syndrome season has come to a close. This means the results are in – and 2021 has our family looking pretty good! I will try to maintain everyone’s privacy and just give a few details for those of you who keep track of our cancer adventures.

Our biggest surgery this past year was removing a bone lesion (we just say tumor) from a humerus. We caught it during our Li Fraumeni season two years ago. It had been growing and was beginning to cause pain – so out it came. It was benign and the surgery was not horrible. No surgery is good, but let’s face it… our family has had some incredible surgery experiences. It was an eight week healing process and we are glad it is over. The same child later developed a kidney stone that required surgery which caused much more distress.

We have had a couple of brain tumors scares. One tumor we have been watching for a year. A mid-year MRI showed no growth but six months before it had been growing a bit. We had determined that if it had grown in August we would ask for it to be removed. August came (our MRI season) and the tumor had grown but only 1 mm. We all determined that 1 mm could be an error in measurement and it is not worth having brain surgery. Then someone else’s scan came back showing a brain lesion. This one had us worried but when we visited with the oncologist they couldn’t understand our worry. Apparently this type of lesion is common and no one (except us) was worried at all. So both brain tumors remain and we have scarcely thought of them since.

We also saw a cyst that doesn’t worry anyone. I think that is all of our recent news. Incognito cancer child continues to undergo chemotherapy and has completed almost three years without a break. Spirits remain high. Two of our five Li Fraumeni family members have a clean bill of health. Life is good and we are very blessed!