May 8, 2024

Had an appointment today to meet my new radiation oncologist. Virginia Mason doesn't do radiation anywhere but the hospital in downtown Seattle, which is about 25 miles from my house, in ridiculous traffic and parking hassles once I get there. They were nice enough to refer me to Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland for it, and that's much closer and convenient. This was a consult to meet the nurse and the radiation oncologist, and get an idea of how things will go. After the surgery, it'll be 4 - 6 weeks to allow everything to heal fully. Then I'll go in for radiation treatments for 4 - 6 weeks. The doctor says since I'm pretty healthy, they may be able to go hard and do everything in 4 weeks, with me coming in a couple times a week. I like the sound of that much better than the every day for 6 weeks I was told at Virginia Mason. He said the side effects will be minimal. Most likely I'll have some mild fatigue and that may be it. So it sounds like the surgery and the recovery from that will be the hardest part. He said the surgery and radiation will likely take care of the melanoma on my head permanently, and since the lungs are melanoma's favorite place to spread, it'll just be a matter of keeping an eye on my lungs after that, and if anything pops up there, it's a relatively simple surgery to take care of because it'll be caught early. So nice after yesterday and today's appointments to know what's happening and when.