Next Steps

I am just too tired to do more than a simple update to keep the information about upcoming steps in treatment shared with all of you. Tomorrow morning I go in for a CT-guided biopsy of the new tumor in my right lung. I've had one of these before in the very early days of everything in 2012. The only worrisome complication is that of a pneumothroax, which is a lung collapse. When you stick a needle into a balloon that is always a possibility. I know the odds for this one, 6% chance, because I lost those odds the first lung biopsy so long ago. Since we are going for the center of the lung this time instead of the outside edge, I am hopeful that everything will be much more copacetic this time around. If all goes well then I should be home by mid-afternoon and then sleeping and hazed out from the sedation for the rest of the day. Sounds like exactly the right time to watch some fluffy Bollywood movies on Netflix.

I will get the results from the biopsy and have a discussion about the treatment options for that tumor next week Thursday with my medical oncologist. It feels a little silly to me for us to be doing a biopsy, since I'm pretty sure we all know that this has to be a new metastasis. But that is the way of things and we need to be certain before moving forward.

Yesterday I had my radiation scan simulation and got a nifty, form-fitted mask that will keep my head locked to the table for the brain radiation. That procedure will be this coming Monday and will be a single treatment. They'll blast me with radiation for an hour or more, first focusing on the three pinpoint tumors and then spending the majority of the time on the larger one on my occipital lobe. There is a small possibility of some visual repercussions, but otherwise just the typical tiredness that seems to linger after any radiation treatment. It wears you out. For the curious, here is what a mask looks like. Mine has lots of little marks and dots on it to note where they are focusing on things. I think I get to keep this after it is all over. Might have to be a smashing party, or perhaps some kind of freaky Halloween costume idea.

So that's going to be all you get today. Tomorrow I will be a post-sedation zombie, but "Oh" the epic sleeping that shall happen!