Thank you everyone who was praying for these test results. I just got the MRI and Chest CT back and they both showed that the cancer hasn’t progressed at all since my last scans! Since this cancer is known to be slow growing and it’s only been 6-weeks since the last scan, we can’t conclude that it’s not growing at all, but it’s good to know that it hasn’t gotten any worse while I’ve been doing radiation and coordinating all the Air Force things.

I also met with the surgeon at MD Anderson today. Unfortunately they don’t have a magical treatment they can do to make everything go away (bummer), but he said that they wouldn’t approach the surgery any differently than BAMC would and that he doesn’t have a compelling reason why I should pursue surgery at MD Anderson versus BAMC. If this was a difference between performing surgery at a little local outpatient clinic and MD Anderson he might think otherwise, but the surgery appears to be pretty straightforward for anyone at a BAMC or MD Anderson level.

The Lord answered my prayers and I got my MRI report just 30-minutes before I was scheduled to leave San Antonio yesterday, which meant I able to bring it with me to MD Anderson and didn’t have to get another one this morning. This meant that other than my appointment, I had the whole day to walk around a giant park in the middle of Houston and just take a break after all the medical craziness. I go back home tomorrow and get a week there before I have to head back to San Antonio for a pre-op appointment. At that point, my parents will come out to San Antonio and will be with me for 2-weeks after my surgery on Oct 8th. Unless something changes, I probably won’t post anything until right before the surgery and plan to enjoy spending time with my friends and family knowing that my cancer isn’t growing.

Side Note: I don’t want to make this a blog about how you should approach your cancer, but I went to the MD Anderson library today before my appointment and found that their resources were about a 50/50 split between “understanding your diagnosis” type materials and “lifestyle” books about diet and exercise. I was honestly surprised how much emphasis they had on lifestyle choices as one of the mainstream cancer centers and it made me so much more confident in my current “Mediterranean-ish” diet. It appears the times are changing. Here are some photos of all the different books I saw as well as a photo outside one of the blocks of MD Anderson. The Houston medical district is a pretty impressive place.