Hi folks,

Brad and I went up to Mayo on Friday to get brain MRI and body CT scans.  This is my first major set of scans since stopping the immunotherapy in November.  Even though our doctor follow-up appointment got postponed to a zoom call on Monday, we still got the test results through the Mayo app.

No metastatic progression observed.  I'm still clear!!

I was more worried this time for a few reasons:

1. I'm no longer on any cancer-prevention medicines.
2. Since November, I've been on what's amounted to 4 months of high-dose steroids to fix autoimmune colitis that the immuntherapy caused (first 2 months of prednisone, then 2 months of budesonide).  Steroids are known to "hamper" the immune system.
3. I've gained about 15 pounds under the steroids, which makes me unhealthier. 

I'm off the steroids now with a clean bill of health, and it's amazing!  I've often said to myself that if my scans are good with this scan, I bet they stay good indefinitely.  Once I meet with the doctor on Monday, we'll probably schedule another set of scans in 3 months.  The plan was to scan me every 3 months for a year after quitting immunotherapy.  But now, with a good scan behind me, I'm feeling much less worried.

Thank you so much to all of you that sent good vibes and prayers yesterday!!  Here's a picture of all of us celebrating Ava's 4th birthday earlier this week, which was a day before my birthday.  I got the best birthday gift of all. :-)