So, it's been a minute. Things have been changing faster than I expected, given my diagnosis was pretty much a thing at this point. And it's been a lot of big decisions recently. It turns out, I have a second type of cancer - endometrial cancer, which is completely unrelated to the melanoma. I'm just an overachiever like that. So, I will be undergoing a hysterectomy in the nearish future. I have another pelvic MRI scheduled this week and we'll be scheduling after those results are back, as I understand it.

As many of you that are friends with me on Facebook know, I've been pretty dizzy and feverish on and off lately. They aren't horrible side effects of the immunotherapy, but they will likely be regular ones. The silver lining is that they show that my immune system is responding well and is super ramped up, working hard. So that's great! The downside is that fever and all that jazz kinda sucks.

After talking with my oncologist and family, I made the difficult decision to resign from my position as Production Supervisor at the animation company where I work as of the end of this month. I gave my boss a month's notice, and he understands. I can't promise what will happen, and I wanted to give them the best opportunity to move forward and keep the business thriving, rather than try to wait or postpone or pressure me to come back before I might be ready. And really, my blood pressure noticeably dropped after I made the call, ha. So I think it was definitely the right call. Being able to just rest when I need to will be helpful. Dr. Bajaj highly recommended focusing on my health right now.

I was denied my first application to AHCCCS (Medicaid), but I'll be appealing shortly. I think there was a misunderstanding in my paperwork/intent. I'm waiting to hear back regarding my disability application. Fingers crossed on both of those.

Unfortunately, my hysterectomy will need to be a full abdominal one, as my uterus is about double the size it's supposed to be and cannot be removed laparoscopically. This also impacted my decision, truthfully. We haven't talked about if I'll need additionally followup treatment, or if the immunotherapy will be a good catchall. Some of the decisions will actually be made in the operating theater, as we've opted to do pathological testing while I'm under to see if my ovaries need to come out immediately or not (despite being highly cystic, they really want to leave them in). If the cancer has invaded the uterine wall past a certain point though, they'll take them out too, and I'll look at HRT and how to best coordinate that with my immunotherapy.

So, just a few moving pieces lately. Lots of scans, lots of pokes. I've been thinking of getting a port put in, but Kaleb is just so darn active, I worry about it. Still on the fence about that one. Insurance keeps denying my PET scan, so I've had more MRI's and CT's lately, ha. At least they're faster! I would like the reassurance of the PET, but we'll try again in another 3 months. My last chest CT "looked good" (working on getting the actual report, as that generic doctor note was nowhere near enough info for me, lol) and my abdominal MRI is this week. My head MRI was completely clear still, which was awesome. Keep on keeping on. 6 months into the journey at this point and going strong.