It was hard to decide which image to accompany this blog episode. The last few days (especially yesterday) were a combination of a swirling spiral and a voyage to the unknown.

Lots of things were packed in yesterday. After the housecleaners left, I had to go off to Kaiser Berkeley in the morning for my weekly labs. Fortunately, it's nearby (less than a mile) so it's a good walk for me. When I got back home, a long phone call with Sam at Kaiser to review the latest results of my MRI. Even though I still have double vision, at least the MRI showed no obvious brain aneurysm or tumor which was a risk for me. My coughing and phlegm production has increased again, so onto a variety of meds and medical contraptions to help control and hopefully stop it.

When I got back home from Kaiser Berkeley, I heard from Dr. Epstein the infectious disease doctor at Stanford. He was reviewing my CAT scan and other results. He thinks my persistent cough is the result of two factors. He was "impressed" by the degree of inflammation the bronchoscopy showed. Rather than a more common rhinovirus, he now thinks I have what's called Protracted Bacterial Bronchitis (PBB for those in the know). It almost always affects very young children and isn't common in adults. (Yet another checkbox for me being on the wrong side of the bell curve.) Along with the PBB, he saw that not all of my T-cells were up and running yet. Which means less ability to fight off the PBB. Soon, I'll start on another antibiotic for a longer duration. Fingers crossed.

Yesterday afternoon had a double-header. First, off to Kaiser Oakland to get my eyes examined. Very thoroughly as well as having my eyes dilated. My optic nerves are in good shape in spite of the double vision. Dr. Harris the optometrist confirmed that there was no brain tear, aneurysm or tumor. My very slight cataracts haven't grown at all within the past year. Unfortunately, it was hard to predict how long the double vision will last. Dr. Harris is predicting a few months. He's also thinking of prescribing new lenses for me that contain prisms to offset the double vision. Right now, he wants to wait a while and see if things might resolve sooner. Special thanks to Eva who whisked me off to my appointment, then made sure I got back home just in time to have a video appointment with Dr. Sidana at Stanford.

Even though my vision was still blurry from the dilation, Dr. Sidana and I had a good long talk. When I asked her how my antigen infusion scheduled for next week might help all this, she said quite frankly, "We don't know. You and I are pioneers in this field. Each development is a new frontier." Because Stanford and other Centers have tried using antigen infusions for patients who have very compromised immune systems (not from CAR-T), Dr. Sidana and colleagues want to try and see if it helps. All this just reminds me of how new this CAR-T is.

Not to drag this down, but I couldn't resist taking a picture of all the various meds, pill bottles and boxes, medical contraptions and check off lists. My friend Tom says this looks like my Shrine to Western Medicine..I don't actually have all these in one place like this. Mostly grouped in the living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. Depending, I go through these 1-5 times a day. Gets me off my butt and keeps me going!

The photo of the spiral is from the opening gallery at the Smithsonian Asian Art Museum back in 2006. The other photo is from when Tim and I took a boat out to the Farallon Islands 30 miles off the Golden Gate in 2010.