Another day in the cancer journey

I’m spending half of today at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. I’m at Moffitt for immunotherapy session number 12 out of 13. These occur once a month unless there are complications, and they are meant to keep my melanoma from recurring. Of course, it has already recurred once, requiring surgery to remove more cancer. And there have been other complications, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and vertigo, all likely caused by immunotherapy.

Immunotherapy, which consists of having cancer-fighting drugs pumped into your body through an IV, is supposed to be less harsh than radiation or chemotherapy. It has been rough for me, though. As I said above, it has had several unintended side effects. And then there’s the joint pain and stomach issues.

But I’m almost done. If everything goes as planned, my last treatment will occur in early or mid-June. A month later, I’ll undergo yet another PET scan and brain MRI to make sure there are no masses in my body. I’ll then need scans for the next four years.

While I have declared myself cancer-free, that is something the doctors will never say, especially with melanoma, which is notorious for coming back. Instead, if my scans are clean in July, they will say I’m in remission.

I’ll take that, though. It will be awesome to only have to visit Moffitt every three months for scans rather than every month for treatments in addition to the scans. Baby steps …