Linda says that once I tell everyone I’m going for a MRI, I should tell them the results. Well, today’s results are as good as a glioma patient could hope for: the tumor is quiescent, not growing and the flair – the area around the tumor and radiation therapy damage – is no more evident either. Indeed, in the image above (captured from GE Centricity software running under Windows on VMWare Fusion) the tumor is just barely visible (lower left quadrant). So, chemo (Avastin) continues…
Wednesdays are UCSF days – our chemotherapy is on alternate Wednesdays, as is physical rehab. Every 6 weeks we go for a MRI, followed by consults with our neuro-oncologists who then decide what the next course of therapy will be (the normal answer: more chemo).
Today is especially full: I have a 9:30 with physical rehab specialist Heidi Engel (it can be grueling) at the Millberry gym, an 11:00 with neuro- endocrinologist’s Dr. Lewis Blevins (pictured), a noon MRI (45+ minutes in a [today] 3 Tesla G.E. machine) followed by an appraisal and consult with Drs. Liu and Chang in neuro-oncology. We are claustrophobic and used to have a problem with MRIs. I think today marks something like the 16th MRI we’ve had in the last 17 months…