I Can Breathe

First, I need to apologize. In my craziness this week, I neglected to update all of you on the results from my CT scan. I realized about mid-week that while I had posted on Facebook, I had neglected to inform all of you. And then my week got away from me. It is now Sunday, and I am finally sitting down to give you all the news from last Monday.

On Monday morning, bright and early, I was at Stanford for my CT scan. I was jittery knowing that this was a critical day and the outcomes could have a profound impact on my life. After my 7 am CT, I worked for awhile and then went to my scheduled appointment with Dr. Fisher at 11:45 to get the results only to find out that he was running at least an hour behind. Finally, at around 1:00 pm, my dear friend, Shelley (she came to hold my hand on Monday) and I were ushered to the back waiting area. After waiting an excruciating amount of time, Amanda, the woman who works on the PDL1 study, came in to see me. She told me that while she could not officially tell me anything, she believed that I was going to get an infusion of my wonderful PDL1 that day. Basically, she was cryptically telling me that my tumors had stayed stable and I wasn’t going to be kicked off of the study. I began to cry with joy and relief. Shelley then began to cry. Amanda then started to tear up. Dana, Dr. Fisher’s right hand, walked in to give us the “official” news – the tumors had stayed stable and in fact a few of them had actually decreased in size. Furthermore, my blood work showed that had my cancer indicator number had dropped from 72 to 54 in 3 weeks. This is a very significant decrease.   We were all overwhelmed with happiness. Amanda and Dana told us that they had been on pins and needles for the past couple of weeks because they were so concerned about what the CT would show following the my most recent PET/CT.

Dr. Fisher entered the room with a HUGE smile on his face. The room was joyous knowing that we were not about to change direction. He did offer a couple of more options to have in my back pocket should I no longer get to stay on the trial (neither of the new options were promising – so hopefully I won’t every have to tell you about them). Fortunately, I was given clearance to get my infusion of PDL1 and I spent the afternoon happily soaking in my amazing drug.

Directly following my infusion, I jumped in my car and even made it back to Sacramento in time to put on a whiskey tasting fundraiser for an Assemblymember!

My next scan is not for another 3 months. I feel like that gives me a chance to breathe. I am incredibly relieved that my tumors did not grow, that the PET/CT was picking up other activity besides cancer growth. 

In other good news, the pain in my tush is slowly decreasing and I’m not in constant overwhelming pain. I am definitely looking forward to the day that the pain is no longer such a significant part of my life. But, I’m not complaining – my tumors are stable (which, for me, is all that really matters)!

Thank you all for your heartfelt prayers, positive thoughts, love and amazing energy. I just know that having you all by my side was the reason that I received such phenomenal news on Monday. I am filled with gratitude.