16 May 2021

 

     The prison medical staff pulled my blood thinner today.  This means I will be going to UW Health this week to get a spinal tap.  We are looking to see if the cancer cells have been cleared from my central nervous system.

     My last spinal tap, which would have been about April 8th, was cancer free.  And that was an extensive testing.  

     It had been clear once before but came back the next week.

     The hope is the CAR T-cell therapy cleared the cancer from the central nervous system, if any still was in there.

     Dr. Kenkre says we will not use interthecal chemotherapy even if we come up positive with CNS cancer cells.  Doing so may take out any CAR T-cell still doing their trick.

    Thus far I have not had full response with the CAR T-cell therapy.  I still have a cancerous mass on the right side of my neck.  A PET scan, which also will occur this week, should show whether or not the mass has been reduced in size.

     The PET scans are not as clear as one would like.  My last one had a lot of cloudiness, which they believed was inflammation from the interthecal chemotherapy.

     I have been spending way too much time lying in bed.  The solitary confinement for an unwarranted quarantine has me depressed.  I am getting some work done on my text self-portrait.

     My big 'fro hairdo is done.  I am now working on my forehead, trying to blend the wrinkles and shadows.  It is not as easy with text.  But I think it will look really cool.

     I have a picture in my head of this at a gallery, framed, with patrons trying to read the text during a show.  Of course, everyone is dressed in black because I would be.