The last couple of months have brought more ups and downs. Brad had a biopsy done in March to find out what the spots were that the PET scan found on his lungs. We are very thankful to say that this was not cancer. It was organized pneumonia. He had an additional CT scan a couple of weeks later and the issue was resolving itself, so he did not have to go on any medication for it. As that was healing itself, Brad's liver numbers decided to elevate. This is a possible side effect of the Keytruda, so treatment was again withheld until the liver numbers came back down. Thankfully, after two weeks, the numbers started coming down. The doc believed that if it was due to the Keytruda, the numbers would have continued to rise. After two weeks of descending numbers and getting closer to the normal range he was able to restart treatment. Throughout all this time, Brad also had an ultrasound on his gallbladder since the PET scan had shown it was slightly enlarged. Results of that showed everything was normal.  Everything finally seemed to settle down mid-April. We had two weeks of things going really well. Brad's nausea was under control, he was eating well and gaining weight again, and his energy was up. Brad's been going to physical therapy weekly and is building strength. We got to celebrate my birthday together and he ventured with me downtown for some shopping and a dinner out together.  

April 29th Brad had another PET scan. Since he is only doing the Keytruda and not the chemo, we are doing scans after about every two treatment cycles instead of every three. Given how good he was feeling and that he had a couple CT scans since his last PET scan that didn't show anything new, we were optimistic going into this scan. Unfortunately we didn't quite get the news we were hoping for. The results showed increased activity and pleural thickening which are suggestive of disease progression. There is a chance this could be caused by infection or something else, but based on our conversation with the doctor, it doesn't seem the most likely reason. We were given three options- continue with the Keytruda and repeat scans in 6 weeks, add the chemo back in with the Keytruda, or discontinue the Keytruda and move to a completely different chemo. This coming Thursday is treatment week, so we will need to make a decision by then. No pressure... We were very much caught off guard by this and have just been trying to process what this could all mean moving forward. On the positive side, the cancer has not spread anywhere else. 

That is the very condensed version of our last two months. We are very much ready for warm weather and summer break. We ask for prayers for guidance on treatment as well as resolution of the new activity that showed up. 

#cancersucks
#prayingforamiracle