13 August 2021

 

     On Friday the 13th -- how apropos is that? -- I was taken taken to UW Health and saw Dr. Pophali where it was determined I was not responding to the pirtobrutinib and they can no longer do anything to treat my cancer.

    I knew this already, but me "knowing" it and Dr. Pophali telling me this are two different things.  I think deep inside I was hoping that I was misinterpreting the numbers from my blood draws, and they were within normal fluctuation swings.  But she confirmed that I was indeed reading them correctly.

     I told her I lasted longer than I expected.  In a very touching moment, she reached out and placed her hand on top of mine, and nodded yes. 

     Dr. Pophali did schedule an MRI to see if they can target some tumorous masses for targeted radiation to keep me functioning at as high of a level as possible as long as I can.

     They will scan the brain and neck.  The latter to try to stem the loss of use of the right arm that started to bare its ugly head again in late July, plus the hearing loss in my right ear.

    I am all but deaf there.

     In the brain they will look for a tumorous mass to see if we can help with the cognitive function and the visual problems I am struggling with.

     I believe they will be able to do the former.  We did it before.  But my guess is we just have cancer cells, and not a tumor, in the brain, and might not be able to do that.  But the last MRI was in May, and that could have changed since then.

     That is three months.

     I have had low level chest pains today.  My last PET scan, also in May, showed my chest, other than in my arms and legs, which have never shown cancer in an image, was the only place to be cancer free (tumors have been there before).  This tells they are back.

     I bumped into my old friend Al McCormick today.  I have not seen him in about fifteen years.