Scan Day Today

Scan days are mostly about paperwork and waiting. Our tech for the CT scan was really great though, he explained everything that was to happen very carefully. Meagan has been through a ton of CT scans and they are so fast now it's really a non-event. What was different was the formation of the mask she will wear during the actual Cyberknife radiation treatment next week. It's designed to hold your head still because people tend to want to follow the robotic arm and that clearly would screw up the radiation delivery scheme. It's a thermoplastic material with lots of holes and after heating it up in warm water it's draped over your face and then allowed to harden. Meagan likes it because she thinks the nose looks smaller. And it felt like a spa treatment.

We then had a long wait before the brain MRI at a different Swedish facility. So we hung out at Elliott Bay Books. At the radiology place we ended up, they keep it a really cold temperature so Meagan always gets warm blankets. She also needed a little help from me getting all the metal off, she forgets what is metal and completely missed her rings. Another cabana boy duty.

All the results get fed back to the Cyberknife team and we will hear next week about the findings, the radiation plan, and the treatment schedule. Which I expect will start next week. Meagan continues to be nonplussed by all the scans and administrative stuff.

We also see Dr. Kaplan next Tuesday and update him on where we are in the process. And she wants to ask him about removing some of her subcutaneous tumors which are irritating. I believe he wants to leave them as either markers to see if treatments work or as tissue which can be harvested in a future clinical trial using T-cells.

I wish things didn't take as long to pull together so we can get going on the brain radiation. We need to get that done and get her off the steroids (which reduces brain swelling caused by the radiation) to be able to get to the Interleukin. We need both treatments of course, control of brain tumors and a shot at a systemic treatment which has a chance of putting the disease into check. They are both big deals.