Update on Radiation, Chemo, Etc. - 11/7/2011

I haven't felt much like typing the blog this past weekend.  After being put back on decadron for brain swelling, I remember how this medication affected me and my attitude.  I definitely don't like the way that it makes me feel - hungry, nervous, anxious, jittery, sortof loopy and drunk and definitely NOT myself! 

Last Tuesday I was able to have the gamma knife radiation down in Detroit.  They were able to map out all 6 tumors and do the radiation in one day - they thought that they wouldn't be able to do all in one day.  When they came to say that they were ready to start the radiation, they told us that it was probably going to be about 3 hours of radiation (which is a long time).  It actually took over 5 hours.  I was very glad to be done but also very grateful that I didn't have to go back the following day for another round.  After getting out of the hospital, I went back to the hotel and slept. 

We ended up coming part way home on Wednesday and the rest of the way on Thursday.  This weekend I spent quite a bit of time resting - between the medication and fatigue from the procedure, it was well needed.

I thought I would share a couple of the pictures that Kurt took with the halo on - a little different than the one that was put on in Marquette. 

This was the halo that was put on for gamma knife radiation at Karmanos Cancer Center/Harper Hospital in Detroit on November 1, 2011.  (They did radiation on a total of 6 brain lesions that day - a total of 5 hours of radiation!) 
Makes me think of the SAW movies!!!!

Trying to get a little siesta in the resource room by the radiation unit at Karmanos / Harper Hospital.

Today (Monday, November 7th), we met with my oncologist here at Marquette.  She has consulted with the oncologist (who specializes in melanoma and was part of the clinical trial) down in Detroit regarding the next options.  It was decided that since the Ipi treatment obviously did work on both my liver and hip tumors, they didn't want to start the new treatment without seeing if the Ipi would continue to work on the brain lesions and the liver/hip.  So, basically, we are going to wait 6 weeks for another MRI/PET scan to see how things are at that point.  If the tumors are the same size or smaller, we will continue with Ipi treatments.  If I have new tumors/enlarged tumors, I will start that new FDA approved drug.  I also talked to the oncologist about the swelling medication and how it is making me feel.  I am going to wean off of it over the next 10 days; I just need to make sure that I am not having headaches, vision changes, etc.

It is a bit scary to me that we will now wait 6 weeks but I feel we need to give Ipi some more time.  If we started the new medication, we would never know how I truly would react with the Ipi.

I will blog more again soon!  Thank you for your thoughts, prayers and love!  I believe....