Moving onwards. The good is that I continue to feel stronger and have
more energy and have been getting more sleep. While I'm still a lot
weaker than "normal" Molly, I'm worlds better than I was even 2-3 weeks
ago. At that point it took all the energy I had to roll over in bed or
get dressed. This past weekend I was able to spend most of Saturday
working with wonderful friends (thanks again so much to you all) making
great progress packing up my Corvallis house and do a number of errands
and projects and social visits on Sunday. So that's very encouraging.
However the paralysis on the right side of my face continues to worsen. My skin just droops, which makes it difficult to eat, and that eye is unable to blink on its own, which means I have to put eye drops in it every 15 minutes or so round the clock to protect it which is a real drag. So a) that's not good just on its own and b) the fact that most of the doctors agree it's being caused by something pressing on that cranial or facial nerve in my brain is causing everyone some worry.
Yesterday I saw both my oncologist and radiation oncologist and received the third of 4 Yervoy treatments. We also discussed the results of the scans I had done last week and everything looks good except the brain. There are no new tumors and everything that we had already been keeping an eye on has either remained the same over a period of months or is now shrinking. So there's at least evidence to suggest that my body is responding well to the treatment. That is the good news!
The discouraging news is what's going on in the brain (and due to that, the face). In addition to the one site where they see tumor in the cerebellum there is a new "density" site that they're not entirely sure what it is. However they believe that it appears to be blood, perhaps with a tiny bit of tumor. They're not sure what's causing it but given how far out from surgery I am and the fact that I'm not on any blood thinners they think it's much less likely to be a delayed complication from surgery and much more likely to be caused by the melanoma, which evidently is known to cause bleeding in the brain more than any other type of cancer.
Given all this, the recommendation is 2 weeks of radiation to the entire cerebellum. If I understood him correctly he was saying that not only does the radiation hopefully zap both the known and yet-to-be seen tumor cells, it can also help stop bleeding and reduce the density of the blood already there. Plus the doctors have seen that radiation given during Ipiluminab treatment seems to have a synergistic effect better than either radiation or Yervoy on its own. So they're hoping to leverage that for my healing.
My oncologist's hope and plan is that this radiation would stop the tumors in my head (and hopefully release the pressure on the nerve so that my facial paralyzation improves) and that after I've completed my last Yervoy dose in 3 weeks they'll be able to just let me rest and recover and heal and have my immune system get back in control of the cancer again. I'm certainly ready to be done with being poked and cut open and zapped for awhile.
I start my first radiation treatment this afternoon. I don't know how debilitating it will be but I hope not too much. I do know it's supposed to make me pretty tired (on top of the Yervoy which also does that) and so I am putting everything off until I am done and hope I can enjoy all my Thanksgiving visitors.
Keep that blue light, healing thoughts and positive thinking coming my way.
Molly
However the paralysis on the right side of my face continues to worsen. My skin just droops, which makes it difficult to eat, and that eye is unable to blink on its own, which means I have to put eye drops in it every 15 minutes or so round the clock to protect it which is a real drag. So a) that's not good just on its own and b) the fact that most of the doctors agree it's being caused by something pressing on that cranial or facial nerve in my brain is causing everyone some worry.
Yesterday I saw both my oncologist and radiation oncologist and received the third of 4 Yervoy treatments. We also discussed the results of the scans I had done last week and everything looks good except the brain. There are no new tumors and everything that we had already been keeping an eye on has either remained the same over a period of months or is now shrinking. So there's at least evidence to suggest that my body is responding well to the treatment. That is the good news!
The discouraging news is what's going on in the brain (and due to that, the face). In addition to the one site where they see tumor in the cerebellum there is a new "density" site that they're not entirely sure what it is. However they believe that it appears to be blood, perhaps with a tiny bit of tumor. They're not sure what's causing it but given how far out from surgery I am and the fact that I'm not on any blood thinners they think it's much less likely to be a delayed complication from surgery and much more likely to be caused by the melanoma, which evidently is known to cause bleeding in the brain more than any other type of cancer.
Given all this, the recommendation is 2 weeks of radiation to the entire cerebellum. If I understood him correctly he was saying that not only does the radiation hopefully zap both the known and yet-to-be seen tumor cells, it can also help stop bleeding and reduce the density of the blood already there. Plus the doctors have seen that radiation given during Ipiluminab treatment seems to have a synergistic effect better than either radiation or Yervoy on its own. So they're hoping to leverage that for my healing.
My oncologist's hope and plan is that this radiation would stop the tumors in my head (and hopefully release the pressure on the nerve so that my facial paralyzation improves) and that after I've completed my last Yervoy dose in 3 weeks they'll be able to just let me rest and recover and heal and have my immune system get back in control of the cancer again. I'm certainly ready to be done with being poked and cut open and zapped for awhile.
I start my first radiation treatment this afternoon. I don't know how debilitating it will be but I hope not too much. I do know it's supposed to make me pretty tired (on top of the Yervoy which also does that) and so I am putting everything off until I am done and hope I can enjoy all my Thanksgiving visitors.
Keep that blue light, healing thoughts and positive thinking coming my way.
You've got the blue light special coming your way, Molly. I'll be checking back and hoping for good news. Best, Beth and Allen
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