The brain MRI Tuesday morning showed that the necrosis in the brain has all but disappeared. The neuro-oncology radiation team is very happy with Rusty's response to the infusions of Avastin. They will check him again in six weeks.
Blood pressure was very high at each clinic visit today, he is a little short of breath and is retaining some fluid, so the melanoma team recommended cardiology evaluation and echocardiogram. Rusty has a cardiologist in Corpus, so we will follow up with him.
Blood count is almost back to normal, but chemo infusion was cancelled today because of low platelet count. They plan on starting maintenance treatment infusions with immunotherapeutic agent in three weeks. At that time they also plan to do "staging" scans...scans which reveal the extent of melanoma remaining in the body.
Thursday morning, Rusty will have a "port" inserted into his upper chest, locally at a Corpus Christi hospital. The port will allow infusions and medications to be given intravenously without the need to start an IV in a vein each time...medical personnel will simply access the port.
We celebrated my birthday with lunch today on the way home from Houston...Baytown Seafood in Van Vleck - yum.
We will be back in Houston in three weeks...just in time to celebrate July 4th on the road!
NASA display in the Pavilion Lobby at MDAnderson
