We'll take it!

Today Steve had a head and neck CT scan at 8:30 am.  In order for us to get to MD Anderson by 8:30 am, we had to have the kids to daycare by 7:30 am.  So, needless to say, our morning started very early.  The CT scan went relatively smoothly with not too much of a wait. 

After the CT scan, we grabbed a quick snack to hold us over until lunch.  Steve can not eat before his CT scans, so he is usually starving by the time they are finished.  His appointment with Dr. Kim to go over results was scheduled for 11:15.  When we arrived to the clinic area, the status board showed that Dr. Kim was running 30-60 minutes late.  This is not unusual.  Dr. Kim is amazing and spends lots of quality time with his patients, so we never mind the wait.  I was very sleepy and actually fell asleep in the waiting room for about 30 minutes or so.  I never do that!!!  (Hope I wasn't snoring!!)  We finally got into a room about 1:15.  Steve's nurse came in and told us that the reports had not been written up yet so she was not sure of results yet.  After a little more waiting, Urvi, the PA came in and told us that everything looked great.  The official CT reports were not in yet but she listened to the dictation and Dr. Kim looked at the scans and A) they didn't see anything new and B) the lymph node and lung nodule had both shrank a little more.  This is great news!  While Steve is still not NED (No Evidence of Disease), it seems that the Yervoy (Ipilimumab) is still doing it's job.  Dr. Kim says that about 10% of Yervoy patients have a long durable response.  Maybe Steve will be in this category?!

Urvi taking a listen to Steve's heart and lungs.

After speaking with Dr. Kim, we left the hospital around 2:30 pm.  We grabbed a quick lunch at Ruggles Green.  I have been trying to eat gluten free and they have an amazing gluten free menu!  By about 3:30 we were on our way to pick up the kids.  Steve fell asleep in the car.  I had a few errands to run and he slept through all of them.  When we got home, he went straight to bed and slept till a little after 7:00pm.  Scan days/result days are always long and exhausting.  Add in the fact that we have been moving for a week straight and you have a couple of very exhausted people! 

Yummy gluten free pizza and the manager came over and gave us a free gluten free brownie with ice cream....yum!!

 

 

 

Dr. Kim is scheduling Steve to come back in 3 months for scans again.  The next set of scans will also include an MRI of the brain.  Melanoma is sneaky and likes to travel to the brain, so we have to be sure to stay on top of that as well.  Ironically, Steve does not see a dermatologist.  Steve has an "unknown" primary meaning he basically just woke up one day with Stage 4 melanoma.  They have never been able to find a mole that they think the melanoma originated from.  On his next visit, he will also start seeing a dermatologist.  Hopefully the dermatologist with map his moles so we can keep a good eye on them.  He has wayyyyy too many for me to keep up with (although I try!).

I hope to not have anything to update the blog with regarding Steve's treatments/scans/etc for the next few months.  However, I will try to post some news articles, advocacy information, etc. 

Thank you to everyone for your love and support!