Traveled to Houston on Sunday after John, Tracy and Joey departed for the plane trip back to Seattle.

Monday was a day of CT body scans, lab tests and an MRI of Rusty’s brain.  Tuesday included visits to the Melanoma team and the Radiation oncologist where in addition to regular exams, we heard the results from Monday’s tests.....Both gave us the BEST NEWS...tumors not visible and no new tumors!...they both used the word “stable” to describe the lack of tumor activity over the past six months.  Two small irregularities, one near a kidney and one in the brain are thought to probably be post treatment scar tissue.  BEST VALENTINES GIFT EVER!!!!  The disappearance of the tumors is attributed to the immunotherapy treatments Rusty has been receiving and will continue to receive every 28 days.

Blood work has improved significantly, and everyone is amazed at how well Rusty looks and acts. He is to start some leg strengthening exercises again in an attempt to improve his balance and stamina...not his favorite thing to do, but Nurse Ratchet is on it!  Still some periods of confusion and short term memory loss, but they are less frequent and the docs attribute it to “post treatment changes”.

After the clinic visits, Rusty had his immunotherapy infusion which takes about 45 minutes during which he usually snoozes.

We’re looking forward to a week in New Mexico with Patricia and Jim, and we’ll be back at MDAnderson on March 12 - just in time for the Houston Rodeo and Livestock show!

Waiting for shuttle to RV park after infusion

 

Rusty with Brian, one of our RV Park hosts

Spring is starting to show up Lakeview RV park