The pic shows Elvira on a walk with the newest member of our family, Olive the Corgi. They both bring great joy to the household, where we had a flurry of medical events between March 19 and March 26.I had a follow-up MRI at UCLA on Monday the 19th. After my September MRI in Santa Barbara showed a spot on my cerebellum, I have been down to UCLA several times to see the neuro-oncologist, who concluded - along with the UCLA tumor board and melanoma expert - that the spot was necrosis, a kind of scar tissue from my radiation procedure in 2016.
While Elvira stayed with the puppy, I traipsed down to UCLA and received good news from Dr. Pouratian: no change in the necrosis. If it was cancer, the spot would almost certainly have grown. Was it disappointing that the spot wasn't gone when they checked? Of course. We want everything that could be cancer to be gone immediately. But that's not realistic, so we will gladly accept "no change".
Feeling good about my brain, I had the rest of my body checked on Tuesday with a CT/PET scan. The Nuclear Medicine Unit at Sansum was very busy, and it took most of the day to complete the scan. That turned out to be okay because Elvira remembered to ask about the prescription glasses I'd lost about the time of my last CT/PET. The employees finally had an answer to who belongs to the glasses that had been sitting beside a time clock for three months.
More importantly, Dr. Abate interpreted the scans for me the next day. Once again, the magic phrase: no change. Once again, it was good news. The bottom line is that they found no new cancer, no melanoma sneaking off to some hidden recess and starting to build up its momentum again. There is still the residual spot on my kidney picked up by the CT but not taking any PET. Presumably, if it was cancer, it would take the PET. As with my cerebellum, we don't know for sure, but no change in this instance is a very good thing. I went upstairs for my Opdivo infusion a happy man.
I had a dermatological exam scheduled for Thursday, but the dermatologist called in sick. I did my own exam that day and found nothing suspicious, but I saw nothing suspicious in 2016 when this whole mess started, so what do I know? In any event, the expert will see me in April and - hopefully - confirm that there is no change.
On Friday, I saw Gayatri for my acupuncture session. It was a total-body mellowing experience as usual, but the highlight was that Elvira brought Olive to meet her. They hit it off splendidly, though on the walk afterward, Elvira said Olive was unnerved by two barking Chihuahuas. The only rational explanation is that they were in a yard above the sidewalk, so Olive probably thought they were about 12 feet tall.
Finally, to finish my eight-day week, I had a colonoscopy/endoscopy yesterday, the 26th. I was due for both exams, but the timing is good here because it's another check that cancer has not meandered into another part of my body. Dr. Hahn said everything looked good afterward, but I won't hear the official results for another few days. We're hoping for no change.
At this point, Dr. Abate believes I'm still on track to be taken off the immunotherapy drugs in June. As always, we'll take it one day at a time and remain thankful for each one of those days, as well as Elvira and Olive and all those who bring joy to my life.
