The best birthday present

My first follow-up oncology appointment was scheduled for yesterday morning at 9. It started off more stressfully than we anticipated. As Leland and I were walking to the UBahn station for our hour-long ride to the LungenClinic, I realized we hadn't gotten COVID tests. At my June 30 appointment, we were told to bring negative rapid tests, but no one said anything about the follow-up visit. We've been so busy packing, getting medical documents translated, and preparing to move that it didn't occur to us. Sure enough: we needed an official negative rapid test. We walked to the test site down the street (<5 minutes), but it was closed until 1pm! I suggested that we buy tests at the drug store and beg the administrator to take them as evidence. We did the tests while standing on the sidewalk and speed-walked back holding our tests, hoping the administrator would accept them. To our great relief, she did. Phew! That whole process took about 25 minutes. 

I had blood drawn and a chest x-ray. Prof. Reck (my oncologist) said that both indicated that Tagrisso is working! This is the best birthday present I could have received (I turn 50 today). He compared the new x-ray with the one from early June and pointed out that there is a bit less filmy/cloudy gray matter and more black areas (i.e., clear, which is how the lungs should look). In addition, my LDH (lactate dehydrogenase*) levels have dropped. Leland also observed that I'm coughing less, Prof. Reck determined that the recent painful swelling of my foot and ankle are not a side effect of Tagrisso, but some random injury that I somehow managed to sustain in Slovenia. Apparently, cancer, COVID, and having my phone stolen weren't enough for one month. I'm wondering what will be next.

Before leaving, we went up to the 8th floor to say goodbye to Dr. Groth (Prof. Rabe was away). He has been incredibly helpful with the document translation issue, following up with me by phone and email, and making sure that I'm set up to transition to the Hillman Cancer Center. Prof. Reck also offered to have my new oncologist contact him with any questions, offhandedly mentioning that she should know of his work (he's published hundreds of articles and is at the forefront of lung cancer research). 

A perk of going to the hospital is that they have a fancy coffee and hot chocolate machine that makes the best hot chocolate we've ever had. And it's free! Even though it was already 90-something outside, we each got a cup to sip on our way back to the train station and Leland filled a travel mug with hot chocolate for Lily. (She never got to visit me at the hospital and try the hot chocolate.) It's the little things in life...

*I looked this up online: "Metabolic changes in rapidly dividing cancer cells are closely associated with increased uptake of glucose and abnormal activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), which regulates the processing of glucose to lactic acid" (https://cmbl.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s11658-020-00228-7)