Soak Up the Sun

Last week was a busy week.  My mom, Jason, and I went to Dana-Farber on Monday to see Dr. Overmoyer.  While waiting for my appointment, I had the opportunity to visit with three of my former co-workers.  It was nice to see familiar faces in a not so familiar place.  

Dr. Overmoyer was impressed with the improvements that you can see/that I can feel.  She felt it was time for a CT scan and set up a schedule of treatment/imaging to get me through the summer and into the fall.  She also gave me the week off from chemo because she wanted the CT scan before I had any more chemo. When she was getting ready to leave the room, I thanked her for giving me hope in this journey.   She turned around and said, "Thank you for getting well."  The words brought tears to my eyes.  I felt I was getting better, but to hear a doctor say it was so encouraging.  I am getting well.  Almost to the point that I can remove the word "getting" from that sentence.  I can't wait to say, "I am well."

I left Boston at 5 pm Monday and arrived at home at 11 pm.  We got back in the car at 6:30 am Tuesday morning for my appointment in Brewer.  It was nice to go in knowing I wasn't going to have an infusion that day.  We brought Dr. Sinclair up to speed on my appointment with Dr. Overmoyer and she ordered the CT scan and an echocardiogram.  Chemo can be rough on your heart so the echo is a precaution to make sure everything still looks good.  Thankfully I could have the CT scan in Blue Hill and the echocardiogram in Bangor.  I had the CT scan on Wednesday and the echo on Thursday. When I went to Bangor for the echo, my friend Cammie joined me.  It was nice to be "normal" and go shopping for the morning.

I had another appointment this morning, followed by Round 5 of my red sunshine chemo.  Dr. Sinclair said that every area of concern on my first CT scan showed evidence of improvement on the CT scan from last week and the echo showed my heart still looks strong.  What an answer to the prayers you all have been sending up!  While the nurse was hand-injecting my Red Sunshine today, I played Sheryl Crow's "Soak up the Sun", followed by the nurse's request of "Living on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi.  That's my life right now... soaking up my red sunshine and living on prayers.

At my appointment today I joined a research study that the Jackson Lab is doing.  They will be analyzing samples from my tumors to look for genes that may respond to different treatments.  The cancer research world is improving quickly so it is exciting to think that in the near future my miracle cure could be found.  Right now one thought is to look to see if my tumor is PD-L1+.  If it is, I will be a candidate for an immunotherapy drug, Abraxane with atezolizumab. If I am PD-L1-, then I will continue with the original plan of Taxol.

While Dr. Overmoyer writes "this is a very difficult and complicated case," in the notes on my patient portal, I feel secure that I have a lot of medical professionals doing their very best to make sure that I have a fighting chance. I am very grateful for all of the wonderful doctors that are providing wisdom to help my doctors present the best treatment options available for me. I am also thankful for all of you that are reading this and supporting me. Your well wishes are very encouraging and help me stay positive. Please keep praying for more positive news as this journey continues.  

The shirt says "Hello Sunshine" in reference to the red sunshine being injected into me.