Several weeks further down the road, and things are looking up. I am eating, working, cycling, teaching, gaining some weight, and generally have enough energy to last through the day. By Friday afternoon, I am generally waning a bit, but can’t say that’s new. Or specific to me.
Got my next MRI two Fridays ago. I am going to try to go to this imaging place from now on. The tech asked my music preference (and put on a station to match!), and then, just before we started, she asked “would you like a warm blanket?”
“Why yes. I would in fact like a warm blanket.” And quite honestly, now I want that to be an option in other venues. I think a warm blanket is up there with sprinkles.
“Things that make everything better for $400, please, Alex.”
They do the MRI twice, once normal, and then they inject dye and do it again. I almost asked for a new warm blanket at the midpoint. Maybe next time. The only thing that could make this imaging place better is if they had a unique color of socks that I shouldn’t take with me, like green. But alas, their warm, non-slidey socks are blue, like the ones from the last place, where I specifically did not take them home.
Met with brave Dr. V yesterday to go over the results and talk about where things are. He started with “well, I’ve got good news and bad news.” I replied “Fuck!” but it may not have been out loud. It certainly was not how I wanted to start things.
Last visit, he told me that he would send out a sample taken from my original biopsy to do an additional test to see if there was either a protein, a chemical, a mutation, or maybe an alt-rock band present in the sample called MGMT. His bad news was that the lab told him there wasn’t enough material to test, but the good news was he is going to try a different lab. Why this is important is that MGMT - either the lack or the presence, whatever the hell it is, will tell us whether further chemo might be useful, though there really is no specific evidence.
“Jesus, Dr. V. That’s your bad news? What about the MRI?”
“Sorry, I looked at that earlier, and it looks the same.”
Lead with that next time, please. Or at least consider if what you are telling me is actually “bad news.” I actually think it was good news / neutral news. No specific new reason to go back onto bonus chemo for the next few months. What lab you use - not really news I care that much about.
So, backing up a minute. I had just had a follow up MRI, and was coming into see the doctor to review. When his first words are:
“So, I have good news and bad news,” here are a few of the things I immediately thought:
“The bad news is that the tumor has blown up and is growing aggressively. The good news is that you likely will make it till at least Thanksgiving.”
Or...
“the good news is that the tumor is stable. The bad news is that you now have a flesh eating bacteria in your brain.”
By the way, should you not know this about me already, I’m a worst case scenario kinda guy.
Dr. V agreed that feeling better and eating totally outweighs bonus chemo, which he also seemed to admit hasn’t really been proven to do anything, but it might, and they’ve always done it.
He did ask me about other symptoms, and I told him about my micro-headaches.
I know how this is going to sound, but it may be all in my head.
I have been having small, short-lived headaches that seem like they are spread across where the ribbons of tumor might be. I don’t have any actual evidence of this, thus “all in my head.” Going back to worst case scenario me, I worried that the tumor was blowing up, or the flesh eating bacteria was, well, eating flesh.
But Dr. V surprised me.
“You know, there have been several changes in the weather lately. When they did the biopsy in May, the hole they drilled likely changed the pressure inside your brain. You very well may be feeling the change in atmospheric pressure.”
“Wait! Are you telling me my brain is now a barometer?”
“Well, kinda.”
Not only is that not the bad news I worried about, that’s kinda awesome.
I told my brother about his and he agreed.
“You were wondering what super power the radiation was going to give you. Maybe this is it?
We even came up with my new super hero name. I am Super Doppler. Able to detect changes in barometric pressure to help predict slight changes in weather.
Which would have come in handy last weekend. My powers were there, but I had not yet identified them or figured out how to use them for good. I flew up to Dallas Sunday, and had just checked into my hotel at 8:45 when my head tingled. Then my phone blared out a scary warning about a tornado coming right at me. Then all power in the hotel went out. Then Kaileigh, who happened to be in Dallas visiting her boyfriend Randall, and was a couple miles south of me, texted “there is a tornado on the ground north of us and headed toward you.” I asked her what one is supposed to do on the 4th floor of a Hyatt Place. And started wracking my Super Doppler brain to see if I remember a hotel being destroyed by a tornado. A hurricane, sure, but a tornado?
She told me to hunker down in the bathroom, which I did. I asked if she was safe, and she told me she, Randall and all their animals were hanging out in the bathtub. A “yes” would have been sufficient as an answer, but ok.
We all survived the North Dallas tornado. It passed about 1/4 mile from the hotel, headed straight toward my office, then went around it after taking out a lot of trees, power lines, and much of a Cheddar’s restaurant. Fortunately, no injuries, just lots of damage. I need to work on fine tuning my powers so as to be of use next time. And by the way, Super Doppler tells me it’ll warm this afternoon.
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