It’s Alright

  I heard this song driving into Philly and found it apropos:

 At the Perelman Center, ready for my labs and bone marrow aspirate!

Radar Love

  

 Another early morning to drive the 472 miles from Ohio back to the Philly area. Taking the PA turnpike which is apparently ~$100 from west to east now?! 

 We plan to take a little time for ourselves and explore the Valley Forge Historical Park before heading back to the hotel, crashing, and getting up early to get into Philly for my Bone Marrow Aspirate tomorrow morning. We’re hoping to pack in Independence Hall to see the Liberty Bell and the Constitution after my BMA and before our flight but we’ll see. 

 

Ohio or Bust and Imaging Results!

  We had a great visit with my parents and puppy, Oley. We had some fantastic thunderstorms and watched an even more fantastic FIFA World Cup 3rd place match. A great visit, all in all. 

 We’re now headed the 207 miles to visit Steve’s family. A few days there before heading back East to my Bone Marrow Aspirate procedure for my SURMOUNT clinical trial. 

 I mentioned MyChart in my last post and it still did not disappoint. I received timely results for all of my labs, CT Scans, and Nuclear Bone Scan (correction from PET Scan). I thought it was a PET Scan, but it was clarified it was strictly a Nuclear Bone Scan that uses 1/3 the nuclear isotope and is more specific to finding bone metastases. 

 Findings: NO METASTATIC DISEASE FOUND!!!!

 This gives me the green light to proceed with the SURMOUNT Clinical Trial and if all goes well, I will never have to do the ABBY Clinical Trial. I will have a Bone Marrow Aspirate every 6 months for 3.5 years as long as no disseminated tumor cells are found in my bone marrow. That’s best case scenario!

 Grateful for a sunny day with less wildfire smoke!

Labs, CT, and PET Scans at UPenn

 Today is a marathon day. After a great sleep at a hotel outside of the city, we’re headed into Philadelphia University City to the University of Pennsylvania Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine for all of my tests. 

 Before leaving, I couldn’t help but giggle at the continued, and unexpected, continuation of my shark theme. This was the shower set at our hotel:

 Now for the traffic report. We planned an early morning to get on the road and avoid as much traffic as possible. To put this in perspective, there are 738,700 people in ALL of Alaska. That’s just 1.3 person per square mile, just the way we like it. Now we’re on the road with the population of Philadelphia, 1.57 million, expand that to the surrounding areas, where we stayed, it expands to 6.33 million. Now add in the FIFA World Cup international visitors for the final game in just 2 days and we’re swimming in people. So far, my driver (my husband), has been doing a phenomenal job ducking and weaving through the lanes. I finally caved and got Waze (thanks Mom) which has been a tremendous help in finding the best route and knowing any upcoming hazards. 

 Today’s itinerary with a big shout out to MyChart by Epic, which makes it so easy to plan a day of appointments, even from 4,290 miles away:

0900 - Labs for ongoing clinical trial research

1000 - CT Scan of Chest, Abdomen, and Pelvis

1030 - Nuclear medication injection for PET Scan - see my past post for all the nuclear PET scan fun

1330 - PET Scan

~1430 - Drive 272 miles to Brookville to see my parents

 See you on the flip side!

On the road again - Clinical Trial Trip #2

 As we were driving into Anchorage to catch our flight, we had the most beautiful rainbow appear. I will take that as a good omen. 

 We fly from Anchorage to Seattle to Philadelphia and arrive at 4:45 pm EST tomorrow. I will have a CT scan of my chest, abdomen, and pelvis and a PET scan to ensure I do not have any metastatic disease. 

If I do, I won’t be able to continue with the SURMOUNT study at this time. Of course, much more to come if that happens. 

If I do not, I will get my next bone marrow aspirate (BMA) on July 23rd at 9:45 am and then head back to Alaska at 4:30 pm the same day. 

The week between my imaging and BMA will allow us to visit my parents and my husband’s mother and then head back east in time for my BMA appointment. 

Here’s to safe travels and clear imaging! Final destination: Pennsylvania!