The procedure was relatively straightforward, with the exception of the clinic's computer system having completely shut down prior to our arrival. They were sending all the patients home for the afternoon, as the wait time for the computer reboot was longer than reasonable for the locals. They technicians were terribly nice with me, and indicated I should stay, as they would place me first in line since I'd travelled from Talent to Portland for my session. This included giving me some coupons for chow (amounting to $7.50 which covered a cook's odd attempt at a funky tandoori flavored bbq roast chicken in the cafeteria - not bad all in all).
There was a funny moment was while we finished the spot tanning treatment, when the technicians bemoaned the fact that I was only there for 2 treatments as they enjoyed working with me so much. I'll take the compliment, but hopefully I won't need additional sessions.
Ki met me at the hospital as he was visiting family up in Washington for a few days, and it was great to see my honey again. We met with a substitute doctor (Dr Soultrain doesn't work on Mondays), and she explained we should expect a 2 to 3 month wait for results to show. Sometimes tumors like mine can reduce more quickly (not sure if this is more of a melanoma tumor thing, or just the way it generally is), but as long as it works, I'll be fine with the time frame.
Afterwards was my first office visit with Dr Curti as my primary care/office visit oncologist. He has a rather different demeanor than Dr Lufkin. I would chalk that up to his being so focused on research for many years, but it looks to be interesting (in a good way) as he's a very nice guy. I get the impression he'd talk as long as I kept asking questions, but wouldn't necessarily go into much detail if I didn't ask. I got a kick out of his self-description as being "old school" as we'll be doing a regular CT scan next rather than another PET scan in June (either he doesn't like getting patient's hopes up for the continual non-delivery of a cute puppy, or he likes the added detail of the regular CT scan on occasion as it has a higher degree of resolution than the CT info a PET scan delivers). This will allow us to see below the 2mm size for mets, but no metabolic information, and as half of the lung mets were below the 2mm size on the last scan, he wants to see where they're at.
In the meantime, side effects such as moderate to severe nausea have started to pop up in the early evenings, which have been controlled once I remembered that I had Ativan pills in the cabinet. I'll expect one more week or so of the occasional bout as well as the sound of helicopter whup whup effects when I stupidly stand up too quickly (you'd think I would remember that one by now... but it's not constant so that's my excuse). And apparently the tumor is supposed to show some aggravated swelling and soreness as the radiated cells are being slapped around (I'm thinking of a 20's style gangster voice as I type that).
So things are going decently. Mid next week we'll be in So Cal for Ki's graduation, and then off to AZ for a few days to see my mom. I also need to figure out some finance thingies as I need to pay the advocator group, and work out the back pay for the life insurance company coverage for the social security portion of my pay (sounds complicated, but I'm not really in the mood to go into details).
Hope all are having a fab May - the weather is teasing warmth, rain, and such here in lovely So Oregon. And here is a shot from the Napoli coast off Kauai from the trip Ki and I took to celebrate his finishing med school! I'll likely have to spend an inordinate amount of time over the next couple of months processing shots, but it was a lot of fun.
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