August 30, 2021

Scans……

Hello everyone! I’ve been taking time since I got the results of all my scans to process everything. I also spent the weekend feeling sorry for myself and it felt amazing!!!!! For some silly reason I decided Friday night to get my third (booster) covid vaccine. So I’ll just say I didn’t feel so good from that. Today I am back to normal. Obviously everyone is different and it could be that b/c I am immunocompromised I got more symptoms. The pharmacists actually told me that she has heard that how I felt after the second shot, I might feel the same after the third.

Well, on a good note the PET scan showed things to be stable or decreased. It also showed new uptake in the left lower jaw which the radiologist called it “metastasis” but I have had an ongoing infection of the last tooth on that side which my oncologist thinks that may just be it. There is a new right lower lung nodule. My spine MRI, somehow it got ordered incorrectly and they only scanned my mid and lower spine, skipped the upper spine. I asked them for next time to make sure it is ordered as “total spine mri”. The report states that everything is same or decreased. Given this good news I am staying the course on the same meds and scans in 3 1/2-4 months.

Not so good was my MRI of Brain which, although it sucked to hear, I made a comment to my sister that I thought something was going to be new on the scan b/c I’ve been getting this pinpoint spot headache above my right eye. The radiologist counted and put in the report that there are 5 lesions that are stable or decreased in size. They also noted 9 lesions that have grown in size with increased edema – greater on the right than left cerebellar area (the back of the brain).

Next step: Since I already had radiation to my whole brain, they don’t recommend repeating that. Thankfully there is Cyberknife radiation which is a very very targeted form of radiation that can be done on the brain lesions. I have a video visit with Dr. Gordon Li (Neurosurgeon) tomorrow and another video visit with Dr. Horst (my prior radiation oncologist) on Thursday. I met with them both when I was first diagnosed and the decision was made that there were too many brain lesions to do Cyberknife at that time, so I did whole brain radiation. The only downside is that I’ll have to go up to Palo Alto for treatment. Oh and the mask that you have to wear during treatment is NO fun.

I will know more by the end of the week and will post once there is an update/plan and I have time. Can’t believe summer is over 😦

XOXO to all and thank you for your continued support and love