Lloyd Bryant

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On March 13, I went to my GP here in Lynchburg about an annoying pressure headache, and a brief incident at work where I could not coordinate my speech.  He sent me to the ER for an MRI, given my history of melanoma.  The MRI showed dark spots and since my records were all with UVA, I was transferred up there that night.  CT and MRI the next morning showed the melanoma had metastasized and the dark spots were tumors in the brain.  More tests, more doctors added a tumor along the spine and leptomenengeal (sp?) cancer in the lining of the brain.  Lots of information in a short period of time! Friday morning (3/16)I had gamma knife radiosurgery (which thankfully does NOT involve a knife at all!) to target most of the brain tumors; there was one they couldn't work on because of it's position.  Since then I've been in the care of oncologists, neurologists and hemotoligists at the Emily Couric Cancer Center.  We are trying the immunotherapy drug route first.  I'm in Charlottesville just about every Wednesday and have been blessed with a great support system of volunteers--especially Cullen!--to ride along with me and make the trips better.  I did have a pretty serious reaction after the second infusion, with white blood cells (neutrophils) bottoming out.  Stranded me in California for a few days longer than planned, but I'm back now and working to get those numbers in line.   I was to have 4 infusions, but they have been put on hold for now after 2, as they think one of the drugs was the cause of the reaction.  There are more details, but this is probably more than enough information--I do tend to get carried away!  Thank you for checking on me!