jammns

FaceBook Post from Feb 28, 2023 @ 7a Pacfic

As month 2 with GBM (my brain cancer) winds down, it is evident my body has recovered from the corticosteroid I was taking… yesterday (including last night) I was asleep about 65% of the day! it’s bittersweet, though, since the 5-hour nights also came with anti-inflammatory effects that made me feel great! Now, seems like most times I’m awake it is with a headache. Okay. Kiddies, when people say having cancer is not fun, I’d believe!

FaceBook Post from March 12, 2023 @ 9am Pacific (PST changed to PDT today!)

About Death . . .

Excepting for all you robots & future people, each of our passing durations are not naturally ours to know nor share. Yet should you know this disturbing date, I pray that burden is easy on you and you’re with peace holding such knowledge! Mine – for one – may still be 5 years on, maybe more (did I ever mention that my Neurologic Oncologist gave me a 55% chance to survive GBM until 2028… which I think is about the house odds for Roulette so that beats a coin toss!).

J.Ammons Health Update

Since 2/22/23 when I started GBM treatments (*) I’ve suffered only one “bad” day! It was last Tuesday (3/7) and frankly only the fatigue and foul mood was manifest – now the fatigue may be attributed to poor previous-night sleep (left the blinds open and woke up no less than six times) or the 30m cycle spinning I did the day before, or even the acidic tomato sauce from dinner, but maybe the treatments, too. Maybe!

Stay “skeptimistic”, my friends. SKEPTICAL + OPTIMISTIC)

(*) https://jammns.blog/2023/02/20/jammons-treatment-progress/

Since 2/22/23 when I started GBM treatments (*) I’ve suffered only one “bad” day! It was last Tuesday (3/7) and frankly only the fatigue and foul mood was manifest – now the fatigue may be attributed to poor previous-night sleep (left the blinds open and woke up no less than six times) or the 30m cycle spinning I did the day before, or even the acidic tomato sauce from dinner, but maybe the treatments, too. Maybe!

Stay “skeptimistic”, my friends. SKEPTICAL + OPTIMISTIC)

(*) https://jammns.blog/2023/02/20/jammons-treatment-progress/

Written on WordPress On March 15, 2023

I met with the OHSU Knight Cancer Center Radiation Oncologist (as every Wednesday) and it was notable as the “HALFWAY” point in my radiation treatment. Honestly, I have been amazed at the lack of side effects from the combo of the radiation and the chemo (temozolomide). While I have noticed quick mood shifts (kind of a manic rise and fall from ebuliant to pugnacious) and inability to recall specific memories which normally would be available – there has been little fatigue they’d mentioned nor nausea. I hope I’m not going to find dry-rot in the gums of this gift horse; just gonna keep on riding it as long as possible!

This week it has been most excellent to spend with old friends from High School, and join a more recent friend from work to have a downtown lunch & catch-up at Ghandi’s – an old favorite!

From March 2023 (one of the strung-together concsious moments, during one of the sad days where my family and I were building up emotional callouses that could lead to us actually TALK realistically about the future)

Doc gives me 55% chance of being alive in 5 years… then

3 times in a row flipped TAILS , and does thrice.

“Raena, maybe you missed the part where THER IS NO CURE for glioblastoma.”

MILESTONE DATE Sunday APR 15 : “BreakthRough Brain seizure”

Second MRI on November 1st.
Technologist notes sound okay to my inexpert understanding…

FINDINGS:
 
BRAIN: Compared to 2/16/2023, similar changes of right parietal craniotomy
and underlying superior parietal lobule mass resection. Similar
postsurgical susceptibility/hemosiderin staining and interval decreased
conspicuity of dural thickening/enhancement and adjacent T2 hyperintense
extra-axial fluid collection deep to the bone flap. Interval reduction in
size of resection cavity now measuring 11 x 4 mm, previously 15 x 5 mm. No
suspicious enhancement in the resection bed.
 
Decreased yet persistent masslike T2-FLAIR hyperintense intracortical
abnormality along the anterior margin of the resection cavity, within the
cortex flanking the posterior right postcentral gyrus.

 New punctate focus of reduced diffusion within the subcortical white
matter deep to the cuneus gyrus of the right medial occipital lobe (DWI
axial 216, ADC axial 212), without clear correlate on conventional T1, T2,
or postcontrast sequences. No associated hemorrhage on susceptibility
weighted imaging.

 
Similar extensive T2-FLAIR partially confluent hyperintensities in the
supratentorial subcortical and periventricular white matter, basal ganglia
and pons are nonspecific but favored to represent sequela of chronic
microvascular ischemic disease.
 
No evidence of new hemorrhage, mass, or acute infarction. The ventricles
are normal in size and morphology.

 
SOFT TISSUES AND MARROW: Unremarkable.
FACE AND ORBITS: Visualized portions are unremarkable.
PARANASAL SINUSES: Mild mucosal thickening in the left maxillary sinus.
 
IMPRESSION:
 
1.  Compared to 2/16/2023, new small focus of reduced diffusion within the
left occipital subcortical white matter measuring up to 7 mm. Without
definite correlate on T2-FLAIR, postcontrast, or susceptibility-weighted
images, this finding is nonspecific but may reflect a small focus of
radiotherapy-induced change (such as radionecrosis) versus new site of
disease. Attention on follow-up advised.
2.  Decreased nonenhancing mildly masslike T2-FLAIR hyperintense
abnormality along the anterior margin of the resection cavity.

DANG, the internet is awesome!