The Pants Look Much Better Today: Clear Scan

 Brain cancer is...

 ...stable!

Above you see Dr. Cloughesy and Darrell examining the good news today:  A stable scan!  See the magenta circle near the arrow, top left?  That's yesterday's scan.  The magenta circle, below, is in the scan from late April.  The circles mark the tumor/surgical site.  No change.  Phew!  He also took us through the rest of the images to show no other troublesome areas.

Today we learned that the images on the right are the FLAIR images.  (More on that acronym here, for another day.)

 

These images show stable scarring, with yesterday's image again on top.

Dr. Cloughesy says some of the scarring could be surgical, but it's probably primarily radiation related.

 

"Hey, Wait!  What?" you ask.  "Don't you always see Dr. Cloughesy on Monday?"  Yes!  We always do! It's the only day he takes appointments.

 

Last night Dr. Cloughesy emailed us directly with a link to upload the MRI images.  Today he confirmed that he had the images from us and asked when we'd like to meet on Zoom.  

 

We told him that we had a Monday morning appointment on the books, but that we were ready anytime, and anxious because we still had no results from the St. Jude radiologist.  (We still don't by the way.)

 

Dr. Cloughesy said, "Let's meet now."  He sent us a Zoom link and we were off and running.  He led the appointment with no minions today, so he did the medications list and neuro exam by himself (another first).  Here's what it looks like when a world renowned neuro-oncologist does a neuro exam.

 

Darrell said, "Man, he's tough!"  He even had us move the web cam to follow Darrell down the hallway in a series of walking tests.  

 

More good news:  Darrell had no time to study up for the neuro exam.  Usually he practices the date and spelling things backward, for instance.  He passed, no practice, no problem.  Wahoo.

Darrell is so relieved. We went from no news to the final word in a matter of hours.

Four more months!  Four more months!  Christmas, here we come.

Last thing:  Dr. Tim Cloughesy today modeled the kind of human we aspire to be when we grow up.  He paid attention to someone's worry as his first priority.  He had the ability to solve a problem with his humanity and expertise, and he solved it.  We told him we will be grateful forever.  He's so humble he just demurred.  Of course.

Team D., you were really positive about those scan pants.  Today we are much more able to agree with you about their good points.  Darrell liked Roene's idea of pairing puffy pants with pointy shoes for elf attire.

Thanks for waiting with us, Team D.  Your pants look even better today.

Today's Bloom

Today's bloom is Darrell's choice of the five finalists for the new Mississippi state flag. (Mississippians are replacing their former flag, with its Confederate image.)  

 

Three of the five finalists have a magnolia blossom.  Mississippi was the 20th state, but it has 21 stars.  The gold star is for its Choctaw and other indigenous people.  We got the image and learned about the flags at this site.  That's where we learned that the words "In God we Trust" must be included, and that the Confederate image must not be.  Isn't it amazing to watch (and participate in, really) history being made all around us?