hazel's blog

N.E.D.!!!

Dr. Lipson called as we were checking into the hotel this afternoon to say that he had two radiologists that he trusts look at all the scans and they didn't find anything to worry about. That means Robert has "no evidence of disease" and I'll dance with N.E.D. at Sandy's wedding on Sunday.

A delayed date with N.E.D. – but no news is good news

Before we left Johns Hopkins Hospital this morning I thought we might actually have some results to report today – but alas, it was not to be. The fellow who made up the CD of Robert’s brain MRI said that if we waited about 10 minutes, he could print out the report for us. Our wait was a lot longer – and then he came and said the doctor hadn’t signed off on the report yet. It was lunch time, and he didn’t want to keep us waiting.

Bummer! But even so, I came home without the anxiety I’ve been carrying around – despite the screw-ups that make me want to take back some of the good things I’ve said before about Hopkins.

Some background on melanoma treatments

For me, moving on from Robert’s active fight against melanoma Stage IIB into the nerve-wracking “watchful waiting” phase means keeping up-to-date on the latest research into therapies in use or under study for patients with more advanced disease. I’ll share some of what I’ve learned so far, and then I’ll try to keep you informed when I learn something new.

To understand how researchers are trying to fight melanoma, first you need to understand what cancer is. I’ll start with a short primer; click here to jump to the next section if you want to skip it.

Back to the blog

Sometimes when I take a break from blogging it’s because I’m busy. That happened in February, for example, when we went to Asheville for almost a week and then my sister and brother-in-law came for a visit. My two-week lapse earlier this month was for another reason—during that time I spent a lot of energy and brainpower (such as it was) dealing with depression. I’m pulling out of it now, and I hope that writing about it will get me all the way there.

Those who have read my last few posts might have gotten an inkling this was going on—one about post-treatment stress disorder, one about my search for support resources, and last week’s post about scanxiety. I hope this will be the last in a series ...

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