Scan Day

Today was relatively uneventful.  We had to be at MD Anderson at 7:40am which meant we had to leave the house at 7:00am.  First on Steve's schedule was a CT of his abdominal area.  With this scan, he can not eat for 3 hours prior.  So, we just skipped breakfast altogether. After the CT scan, we caught the tram over to The Rotary House to have breakfast at The Oaks.  Luckily, the buffet was still going because we only had about 30 minutes until we had to be back over to the Mays Clinic for his MRI.  The buffet was not very good.  Most of the food was cold, hard, had been sitting, etc.  Then I about choked when I found out the buffet was $16 per person!!  You've got to be kidding me?!?!?!  I did manage to find a hot Texas shaped waffle and Steve got a nice, fresh omlet.  I don't like eggs, so that wasn't an option for me.  I loaded up on fresh fruit for the most part.  After breakfast, we headed back over to The Mays Clinic for Steve's MRI.  This took a lot longer than I remember.  He does not get an MRI with every set of scans, but it had been a while, so Dr. Kim decided to take a look this time around.  After the MRI, we headed home to watch some football!  We have to be back at MD Anderson tomorrow at 9am.  Steve will have a CT scan of his neck, a dermatology appointment and an appointment to go over the results of his scans.

I will post results tomorrow......

Steve waiting patiently for his CT scan.

AIM at Melanoma poster for this weekends walk. If you would like to sponsor us, you can do so at http://www.aimatmelanoma.org/en/aim-for-action/1158/1159/houston-2013/6567.html#

"Cancer has given me a new outlook on life."

Since Steve and I had 'The Art of Surviving' seminar to attend yesterday and Steve had to be at the hospital at 6:30 am, we decided to stay the night at The Rotary House.  The Rotary House is a hotel owned by MD Anderson and operated by Marriott and is connected to MD Anderson by a sky bridge.  The hotel is only available to MD Anderson patients.  After the seminar, we were too tired to leave for dinner so we had a nice dinner at The Oaks Grille inside The Rotary House.  After dinner, we turned in early to get some sleep before our 6am wake up call.

We got up at 6am and got ready to head over to MD Anderson.  Since it was so early, the shuttles that usually run between the Main building and the Mays Clinic were not yet running. So, we had a nice 1/2 - 3/4 mile walk to Steve's first destination.  Along the way, we were able to stop and let Steve take his picture with his "survivor" banner.  It is survivor week at MD Anderson, and Steve was asked to provide a quote and join other survivors on banners throughout the skywalk/hospital.  What an amazing honor!!  Unfortunately, with melanoma you are never "cured".  We consider Steve a survivor everyday!! 

Steve with his banner and quote.

The skywalk with survivor banners.

Dr. Bogler from The Art of Surviving seminar.  Dr. Bogler has male breast cancer. 

Marisa Mir and her husband.  Marisa works at MD Anderson in the communications department and is a cancer survivor.

Steve's first stop was to have his blood drawn at the blood lab.  At 6:45 am there was no wait and he was in and out in minutes.  Next, we headed upstairs to check in for his abdominal CT scan.  There was a fair amount of people for a Sunday, but Steve was out by 9am.  His CT was scheduled for 9 am, so we were pleased to get out of there early.  After breakfast, we headed to our house and got the last of our things and cleaned up.  Today was the last day at our house and the first of many nights at our apartment.  We are having a new home built and should be in the apartment 6-7 months (sounds fun, huh?)

Breakfast at The Oaks Grill

Good Bye, Glade Bridge Ln!!!

We have been trying to get the apartment in order all night.  Things are everywhere!!! It is a nice distraction from the "scanxiety".  Steve will have a head/neck CT in the morning and then meet with Dr. Kim at 11:15 to discuss the results.  Our hopes are that the cancer is gone!!  We will also accept stable or shrinking tumors.  And, if worse comes to worse and the scans show something new, we have a few clinical trials we are interested in. 

Results tomorrow.............breathe.