From sweet and salty to stage IV metastatic melanoma and everything in between : Scan Results

Yesterday was my long scan and appointment day.
I started the day at 7:30 getting labs and an IV placed and picking up my contrast for my CT scan. I sat at the U of U Hospital Starbucks with a friend drinking my contrast, which is the nastiest thing and makes me super sick. No fun. I then got my CT and headed up to Huntsman for the rest of my appointments.
My dad came with me this time to meet my doctors and experience what I have to do each time I am there. I could tell he was a bit anxious by the way he was acting - being goofy and all over the place. But then it was a lot of waiting so that fizzled out. I usually have to wait between and hour to two hours to be seen as they tend to run behind. Although this isn't great, I know that once they are in the room with me they will spend as much time as needed with me which is great. Regardless, it took extra long this time.
When they came in they told me the results from my scans. My tumor is not smaller, but it isn't bigger either. It is the same. There are also some small nodules in my lungs that they aren't sure exactly what they are. They could be cells reactive to the treatment as Ipi has a large impact on the lungs or if they are melanoma. There isn't a way to find out without a biopsy, and they aren't large enough to biopsy. The largest one is 2.5mm and they don't usually worry about things until they are 10mm/1cm. So they just pointed them out for us to keep an eye on (and to stress me out). They also noted that there was some discoloration/marbling inside the tumor which could indicate the tumor responding and that the discoloration could be deceased tissue. Again, no way to really know for sure as this is all still such a new treatment.
I then had to decide whether to stay on this same treatment or switch to a PDI treatment or a pill to counteract my BRAF gene mutation (I apparently have a gene mutation in the tumor?). I decided to stay on the injection trial and we will just continue to watch it all closely. The doctor said he would pull me off if it grows much more and we will switch treatments then. Hopefully I will get over this plateau and things will start progressing faster.
I then had to get a biopsy (to compare the tissue now to when we started) and then got an injection.
I have been having pretty intense headaches so they scheduled an MRI later in the day just to be sure. I got those results today and the brain is clear which is great.
My dad and I left around 1:30 to get lunch. I was glad he got to experience the day up there - even though I know it was overwhelming.
I returned at 4 for my MRI and finally was done with my day at 6. I was spent! I was excited to sleep in today.

Although it wasn't good news, it also wasn't bad news. Just ok news. It is frustrating but I have to remind myself that things could be so so much worse. I am still in this fight and happy to not be getting worse. This battle will be long, I just have to take it step by step, day by day.