These past few days have certainly been a whirlwind experience, and all I can say is God is good. Although it is not the best circumstances I know that being admitted to the hospital was probably the best thing that could have happened. Nothing emergent has happened, still waiting to see what all the different teams have to say and who is going to be the first up to bat. But by being here in the hospital the ball can start rolling instead of waiting around for outpatient appointments.
At this point the brain tumor is the main focus since it has been the one giving me the most problems. My original MRI on the 20th showed some bleeding around the tumor, which for melanoma tumors is not uncommon but is some cause of concern. The CT scan that I had when I was admitted showed no change in the bleeding which is a good thing. But because it was there, I was admitted in case anything changed. The repeat MRI from last night showed that there is still the hemorrhage (where the bleed was) and that it may have increased a little bit. Fortunately the MRI showed that there is still only one tumor in the brain which is preferably for radiation treatment options. Unfortunately the tumor is large enough that it is approaching being too big for the focused radiation treatment. At this point Neurosurgery is recommending going in and surgically removing the tumor from my head before beginning outpatient radiation treatments. The tumor is in a good location with good margins. Recovery time is not too long and I would be able to start the radiation treatments and immunotherapy within a week or two after surgery. The soonest that they can schedule the surgery is for tomorrow (9/28) but the exact timing is still in the works.
Once the brain tumor is under control, we we begin treating this cancer on a systemic level. There are several options and combinations for treatment so as time goes on we will know more.
As always I will be keeping you all update with what is going on.