From: Timko, Terry M
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2016 1:41 PM
Subject: Maura Friday PM Update

Wow I don’t know where to start other than God is good, he has a plan and we are even more blessed to be a part of it.  We learned a lot about that, and Maura’s health, over the past several days.   While we don’t have an answer or course of treatment from the Drs. yet, we are doing really well.  She is still symptomatic (speech issues) and has 3 lesions in her brain including one a mass in her speech center.  Personally, I believe God has, or better is, healing Maura, and we are now really dealing with a brain injury which is recoverable through speech therapy.  Side note for those of you that don’t know, Maura was a speech therapist who worked with adults with brain injuries – the irony here has not escaped us.  Her clinical symptomatic diagnosis is mild (my word) Expressive, or Broca’s, Aphasia. This corresponds to the location of the largest mass in her head.

Medical Update:

We received the initial results of Tuesday’s PET scan back yesterday (sorry no update yesterday) and while the doctor’s still had some questions for the radiologist which we are waiting for answers on, the finding was no active cancer or infection anywhere in her body other than in her sinus where she had surgery in December.  The doctor’s opinion is this infection is secondary and not related.  We are still waiting on some of the test results from the lumbar puncture, namely a fungal culture and MS test.  I’ve heard from more than one person (not the doctors, but have not asked) that the MS tests are not the most reliable.  Again we are dealing in the domain of probabilities most of the time here, not absolutes.

We have an appointment with the Neurologist Wednesday when these results should be in.  If these are negative we may either start a course of treatment diagnostically or do a brain biopsy. For example, if best guess is it is a fungal infection, then let’s try an anti-fungal drug that breaks the blood/brain barrier and see what happens. The trouble is it could be so many things and these are strong drugs.  It could also take a while and be inconclusive.  The problem with the other option, a biopsy, is the mass is not in the most easily accessible location – not the worst but non trivial.

So we are in the waiting place.  We are treating Maura as if she has had a brain injury.  So like someone who has had a concussion we are moving into a low stimulation mode.  No driving, no big excitement or bright lights (hey we have some concert tickets tomorrow if anyone wants them J ), not a lot of visitors, …

She says she feels like her speech issues are getting worse.  I have not noticed but it could be all the stress and commotion is making it harder.  So contrary to the nature of the Timko household will be low key for the next week.

Edit: my last note said the larger mass was 1.5x1.8x1.6cm, in re-reading this and converting to English units that just seems too big and I’m going to ask the doctors to confirm.

Physical needs:

So many of you have been asking what you can do. We have been blessed by the outpouring of support.  We don’t need meals but may need help driving Josh & Ethan with Daniel starting his Coop Monday and my starting back to work a bit as well.  Jeff will keep the volunteer group posted on this – you guys have been amazing.  I really thought we would be uber-ing our kids around their last 2 weeks of school but they have been blessed by the time many of you have spent in the car with them.

Personal and spiritual:

We really hate when people use all kinds of Christianese jargon, so I’ll try an put this as plainly as possible. Per my previous notes we are doing really well and are asking our Father to continue to show us His plan here.  Over the past several months we have felt God actively leading us into a new season, a new chapter if you will.  We have seen God show up and speak to us more clearly than just about any time in our lives.  This chapter will be different than what we have experienced in the past, we would have to trust God and not our own capabilities.   This is the primary reason I had such peace when Maura told me the news last Thursday.   I could not work out in my little head how this could be the end of the book when I knew there was more.  Therefor this must be part of that new story.

{This truly was a new season or chapter, not the one we were expecting, but we would learn the one He had been preparing us for for a long time. In the end it proved to be the hardest, most precious and possible fruitful.  I trust it also prepared the boys and I, and many of you, for future chapters}

As we walk this medical part of the story out, we are starting to see how He is using this in multiple dimensions.  We are going to push on into this new season in parallel, despite our many failings, clear inadequacies and lack of experience. So stay tuned and thank you for all your prayers and support.

Terry