Mixed Bag of Nuts

Okay

So I just got back into the Rogue Valley after my appointments up in Portland this week.  The PET scan results were a bit of a mixture of good and not great news.

• Good News - Lung and Lymph Node cancer mets did not show any growth.  Much reason to be glad with this result, as this is the first time we've seen that result after a scan!
• Medium News - the Lung Mets had a higher metabolic rate than in the previous scan.  Dr Lufkin indicated this wasn't something to get concerned about, so while I'm mildly inclined to think "say what?" to this, I will choose to take his perspective and make it my own.
• Lame News - the newer met that showed up in my front right hip area on the last scan unfortunately had some growth.  Not a massive amount, but it pretty much is like drinking white wine with a great steak... it's just not a good thing.

Dr Lufkin hasn't heard back from the drug reps he contacted for sponsorship help, so I showed him the Canadian pharmacy with the generic Gleevec.  After looking over the page Ki had sent me with the state of Minnesota's seal of approval (they went up and inspected a few specific pharmacies to ensure the medication was as advertised), he agreed that our next best course of action would be for him to send a prescription for me up to the pharmacy Ki and I'd chosen, and have them contact me for payment (he'll do this next week, after one last attempt to contact the drug reps).

So I'll be buying my medication at $1260 for 3 months of pills.  We'll be rescanning in 2 months after I start taking them to see the progress.  The irony here is I would likely have a $300 (ish) copay for any of the 3 drugs which we would be using if the insurance provider would agree to them as "appropriate for melanoma" so the out of pocket cost of the Canadian generic, while not cheap, isn't terribly much more.

Dr Lufkin did say that another round of Yervoy wasn't out of the question, but since we had the hip met grow some and saw no reduction in the other spots, Gleevec would be the best next step to take.  Now I do love me some Yervoy... so if I can get another 4 infusions, I'll be a happy camper (okay it was just so much nicer than IL2 that I have to love it more, and while it didn't deliver the maximum result, it certainly did help, and I'm happy about that).

Still waiting on final approval from the disability pay, but I'm expecting that in the next few weeks, so I should be able to get off the cards and pay some of them down to a more realistic balance...  Christmas gifts are going to be in short supply from me this year I'm afraid.

On a non craptastic note... 

I had a fun reunion with my friend JaneAnne Peterson (from college days).  We had lunch at a very Portland appropriate sandwich shop (green bean and beet sandwiches :)  and then a nice sweet bite at a pastry shop.  She's done super well, and we caught up on our families, friends and such.  

And I have a great partner named Ki still...(thank goodness), in case anyone wasn't quite aware.  He's working on his first rotation post teaching, and it's in anesthesia. Which apparently is a total gas (raw raw raw). 

Bottom line - still feeling quite well, and I'm planning to slowly get the gym back into my schedule now that I'm not saving my system's energy for the Yervoy to use.   I think enhancing my fitness at this point will be really helpful in a few ways.