This is great news!

Tuesday was my post-treatment MRI and check up with Dr. Akthar at the Northwestern Chicago Proton Center.

Kathie and I left Minocqua at 9:00 a.m. Monday morning for our six hour drive south.  We planned on getting a hotel room since my first appointment was at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday morning.

You may remember me talking about the February MRI's that seriously put my fortitude to the test.  They separate the head portion from the neck portion for no other reason than the amount of time that each takes.  The neck typically takes about an hour and ten minutes, while the head takes about an hour and forty-five minutes.  In February, they did the neck on Monday afternoon, and the head Tuesday morning.

This time, we didn't have that luxury.  We would have to do the two back to back.

Making sure that I didn't drink a bunch of fluids before hand, and of course using the bathroom before the test, ensured that I wouldn't have a repeat of the agony of February's MRI.

I was on the table by 8:00 a.m. - ear plugs in place, and head secured - the machine started right away.

The young woman that was running the MRI would come over the loud speaker at each segment and tell me, "This segment will take six minutes."  The next segment might be four minutes, or eight minutes.  It broke up the monotony of the noise coming from the machine, and gave me something to look forward to.  All in all, I was on the table for a little over three hours.

We wouldn't meet with Dr. Akthar until 4:45 p.m.  We had some time to kill.

We drove around the areas that used to be so familiar to us, when we lived in the Chicago suburbs from 1988 to 2014.  So many things have changed, but at the same time, so many things remained the same.

Being able to eat, and taste just about anything, has been such a pleasure.  There are no shortages of great restaurants in the Chicago suburbs.  We stopped and had lunch.

I'm not sure if it my age or the medication, or maybe a combination of the two, but it seems that after lunch, I need to take a nap.  We stopped at a Home Depot so that Kathie could check out the gardening section while I caught some ZZZ's in the parking lot.  I slept for about an hour, which only put us to 2:00 p.m.  We still had almost three hours to kill.

We drove around some more and before we knew it, it was time to see Dr. Akthar.

We first met with my nurse, Kim, who took my weight and vitals, and went over medication, and how I am doing in general.  I lost eight pounds since my last visit, which honestly means that I probably lost closer to ten or twelve pounds when I wasn't eating.  I've been gaining weight over the past couple of weeks.  

My current symptoms are fairly manageable. In a quick overview, my entire left face is numb from my scalp to my chin.  I have lost about 90% of the hearing in my left ear.  My left eye is still not tracking with my right eye, and my vision has been blurry in my left eye since the last couple weeks of treatment.  I still have the random nerve spikes that come on three or four times a day.  

Dr. Akthar came in to review the latest MRI's.  There were three areas of concern from the beginning; the tumor below my left eye, the "base of skull" tumor, and the tumor near the Mastiod Process, below and behind my left ear.  

Dr. A was pleased to show us that the base of skull tumor was, for all practical purposes, completely gone.  We compared it to the MRI from February that showed a mass, then compared it to the right side, and it looked as normal as can be.  This is great news.  

The tumor under my left eye has shrunken considerably, as well as the tumor below and behind my left ear.  All in all, Dr. A was very pleased with the results.  We will check back with him in September for another MRI.

In the mean time, I will check in with my Medical Oncologist, Dr. Yasar, up here in Minocqua.  I would like to get a Neurologist involved that understands the nerve rebuilding/repairing process.

I'm still trying to figure out what my new normal is going to be.  I've been doing some remodeling projects around the house here, and I'm finding that it is not as easy with one eye.  It takes twice as long to get a simple project finished.  I may need to abandon the remodeling contractor gig, and find something new to do with myself.  I've been kicking around the idea of getting my CDL and being a long haul truck driver.  That would be cool.  I'm sure it would give me a lot to write about.  Or, maybe I could build some Northwoods inspired furniture and sell it in the local shops.  One thing is for sure; there is no shortage of jobs right now.  Everyone is hiring.

I'll keep you all posted as appointments come up and things progress with my recovery.  Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts.