The Marvelous Mrs. Merkel

Great news!  As many know, Mom had her first follow-up PET scan last week since finishing radiation in March. Her last radiation treatment was the first day the big shutdown started (in Maryland, at least). So it had been ~ 4 months since her last radiation treatment. As she mentioned last week, it didn't look like any nodes or any other spots (where Merkel cell carcinoma tends to spread - lungs, liver, and bone) were lighting up. So that was all awesome news. What did light up was a little area on her stomach. A few hours after getting that result she met with her gastroenterologist and she was scheduled for an endoscopy, which happened yesterday. The great news is there was only a bit of gastritis (inflamed tissue) in the area that lit up on the PET scan -- no tumors, cancer, or anything like that. The not-so-great news is that she has an ulcer in a completely different area of her stomach. This was not picked up by the PET scan, so it seems like a good thing that she ended ...

What strange times we live in at the moment.  I (We) hope everyone is staying as healthy as possible, washing hands, disinfecting the world at the moment. Also, side note, the faster everyone adheres to some social distancing (just stay home, kids), the faster this will all be over.  That being said, 26 sessions of radiation have come and gone. Mom finished the last session on Monday! Radiation and a pandemic at the same time -- talk about multitasking. Above is the picture after she rang the bell and received her certificate. She's also holding her radiation mask. She get's to keep it. Maybe we'll turn it into a cool planter or something. We had to Facetime the bell-ringing. I had the kids with me (because school had closed) and we were not allowed into the facility (not even the waiting room -- which is very understandable and very good practice). But in addition to being awesome nurses, techs, aids, and doctors, they took pictures for us.  Radiation s...

Hello all-- Just wanted to give an update. I know that Mom updated her facebook page but not everyone who reads this can see that. Overall, things have been quiet and she has been recovering and resting. They took the stitches out about a week after the surgery and she has been slowly working on removing the wonky sideburn that is now at a 90 degree angle from its original position. She has been out to Bingo twice (a usual weekly event) and out shopping a few times, but small bouts of activity make her pretty tired. No training for marathons yet...maybe in a few months. The good news (which she had already posted) was that her margins from the surgery were clear. Actually, they were very clear. That means in addition to the tumor being removed previously, she had an additional 2 cm in every direction removed and that tissue was clear of any cancer. To put the size of those margins in perspective, a lot of cancers require only 1-2 mm of clear margins to be removed (millimeters [mm] ...

Happy New Year!          Just a brief update, as the queen herself will update tomorrow after receiving the pathology report (i.e. how big the tumor really was and if they cleared the margins) during her first follow-up appointment. Mom has been resting comfortably at home since Sunday. An ice pack worked wonders on her eye--thanks Cheryl! The swelling and the pain are gradually getting better each day.            In my opinion the scar will look great once the stitches are out and the swelling has gone down. Still a bit of tugging on her eye and the area around her ear is pretty sensitive (where the "skin flap" originated). But other than that, everything is slowly getting better.            We hope everyone is having (or had) a good holiday.