Scans, and the Beginning of Cycle 12

I was hoping I'd be more productive with blogging this past week, while I was feeling good, but it ended up being a busy one that kept me away from the keyboard... Well, not entirely. I worked on code for my Ph.D. work, which involved heavy keyboard use, but those were keystrokes I couldn't use for blogging.

The first big event of the week was scans. As usual, I had a PET scan and a CT scan of my chest. I didn't mention this yet, but each time I get a PET scan, I get this card that says I had a procedure performed at Sloan-Kettering. The NYPD has radiation detectors set up around the city to sniff out dirty bombs, and the radioactive sugar used in the PET scan leaves me slightly radioactive through the end of the next day, enough so to potentially set one of them off. I have to steer clear of pregnant women and infants during that time for this same reason.

Like the prior two I had, the PET scan showed no evidence of tumors anywhere! Here's hoping that continues. The lung spots that have been showing up in my chest CT scan have remained stable; when we met with Dr. Meyers to discuss the results, I asked about where things. He said that at some point there will be a big discussion that will include the surgeon and the radiation oncologist who would perform any surgery or handle radiation treatment, and the likely recommendation would be what we thought was going to happen back in March, that I would get radiation to the lungs to take care of any cancer cells that are there that the chemo didn't get. An important point he made was that regardless of what the spots specifically are, there's almost always some cancer in the lungs of every Ewing's patient. Before chemo, most patients with apparently localized disease would suffer a relapse there after treatment of the primary tumor. With my spots not definitively showing one way or the other, I do want some form of extra treatment directed at them in case any of them are tumors.

The second big event was that Ashley came for a visit! She arrived Thursday evening, just in time to hear the scan results with the rest of us the next morning. Then we spent the rest of the weekend out and about . On Friday afternoon, we went to the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art). We spent most of our time in a special exhibit about the architect Le Corbusier on the top floor, and then browsed some of the permanent collection. The highlight item was Van Gogh's "Starry Night". I was hoping to see Dali's "The Persistence of Memory" (a.k.a. the famous painting with the melting watches) as well, but it was on loan to a museum in Spain. Hopefully it's back before I'm done here.

On Saturday, we went to the Bronx Zoo. It's really big, with many exhibits. We saw bison, many kinds of birds, tigers, bears, baboons, giraffes, gorillas, and much more. Here are Ashley and I comparing our heights to that of a reaching tiger. I'm slouching a bit, while she's standing on her toes, but still, you can see that one of us is vertically challenged while the other is vertically endowed:

Then today, we went to Long Beach. No, not the city all the way out in California. There's actually a Long Beach, New York as well. It's a small beach community on Long Island, accessible by taking the Long Island Railroad. This was nice, to get out of the city for once. There was no escape from crowds though, as there were plenty of beachgoers, though it was nothing like the crowds in the city itself.

Tomorrow, Ashley heads back to work, while I begin cycle #12, my last with ifosfamide and etoposide. After this one, it'll feel like the homestretch, with only one more of those "bag" cycles left (a final round of cyclophosphamide/doxorubicin/vincristine). I think the light at the end of the tunnel is finally coming into view!