Maybe someday scanxiety will stop having such a hold on me. It persisted through the long time (almost a week) that it took for Hopkins to post the results of all the tests Robert had done last week. The reports I read last night confirmed what Dr. Lipson found at our visit last Tuesday – no evidence of disease. Whew!

The visit with Dr. Lipson was encouraging – to me, at least. He didn’t see or feel anything suspicious, and he looked at the brain MRI and abdomen/lower extremities CT scan while we were there. But I heeded his caveat that he’s not as good at reading the scans as the radiologists are, and I also wanted to know the results of the chest and neck soft-tissue scans since those are likely places for a recurrence (due to proximity to the primary site). All the results were posted yesterday. There were a couple of nagging things to look at, having nothing to do with melanoma. Each scan report specified “no evidence of metastatic disease.” I slept well last night, for the first time in a few weeks.

Another reason the Hopkins visit was encouraging is something Dr. Lipson said to Robert (with a little prompt from me). I try not to nag Robert about not exercising – and I mean not exercising “at all,” not just “enough.” The weather’s not good for bike riding, but even when it was, he didn’t choose to go. And the gym just isn’t his thing. But I hate to see him getting soft ... My inquiry to the doctor about whether Robert had gained some weight raised eyebrows – but the scale showed no gain. Even so, Dr. Lipson chided Robert a bit by saying, “I plan to keep you alive for a long time, so you need to take care of yourself.” That allowed me to breathe more easily during the day. It was only at night that it caught up with me.

So, scanxiety is over until May 1. We have lots to do between now and then!