Ryan has his PET and MRI on May 7th, and we saw his oncologist the next day to discuss the results and his treatment plan going forward.
I am excited to say his PET scan is even cleaner than it was before and I didn’t know that was possible 🤗 any residual FDG localization was even smaller than the last PET he had in February. So we officially have another NED scan!
We went over the MRI results, those were a little different. His resection cavity where he had the brain tumor removed is showing a little more density, which our oncologist said she’s not worried because it could be radiation after math, scar tissue, or what she called “pseudoprogression”. After being treated with immunotherapy, the T cells attack areas that there is/was a tumor and it can show up on a scan as concerning. Something I didn’t know existed so I’m doing my research. She is consulting with Ryan’s radiologist and we will get a call today. But she isn’t worried because if he was having progression it would be showing up in other places and he would be experiencing symptoms.
SOOOO, for right now; we are celebrating. We had a cook out with friends and family, had cake, and had a wonderful night.
As far as treatment goes, he is weaning by 20mg of steroids every 7 days, once he gets down to 40; he will wean every 3. Until he’s down to 10-5. Once he is down to that, his oncologist is going to try and challenge his system again with BOTH the ipilimumab and the nivolumab. He has 2 more cycles of that, and if he can get through that would be amazing.
She also mentioned that if we had a preference on mono therapy, whether we want to continue with Opdivo or switch to Keytruda, that’s up to us. She will make it happen if that’s what we choose.
Yesterday was a good day, and we are incredibly happy and lucky 🍀 ❤️
New member — husband stage IV melanoma
Brother with stage 3 melanoma 
