[agness]

I had my first cerebrospinal fluid labs run this week, the first since early December.

The spinal fluid was clear, colorless and showed no debris. There were no red or white blood cells so no bleeding or infection. My glucose was high and my protein level very low. No circulating tumor cells were observed.

With my cancer having spread from the original brain tumor site and growing on the outside of my brain there was concern that the disease can spread anywhere. Cancer cells will suck down glucose and shed protein -- but that isn't happening in me. Thankfully my results are brilliantly normal with no signs of disease.

Hooray for small blessings!

I will have four scans in the next few weeks: brain and spinal MRIs, PET (metabolic scan with radioactive glucose) and torso CT. They want to restage me now that I've had brain rads, to help guide treatment going forward. Hopefully having drugs put into my spinal fluid plus partial brain rads and everything else I've done has helped kick the disease. I will keep you posted.

PS - Three oncologists have told me they have seen HER2 in patients who were systemically negative, go back out of the CNS to infect the rest of the body. I haven't found any articles about this but I think that these docs at Seattle Cancer Care, UW Medicine and UCLA Health are speaking a truth we need to know.