Disney to Spinal Tap

Click on the photo for a better look.

Keith and I had a great weekend in the LA area.  We got in Friday, picked up our car and headed over to the Getty Museum.  HOLY COW, it is just gorgeous, from the building itself to the art inside to the gardens and the views on the outside.  It's breath taking!  After the Getty we caught up with some dear friends for dinner and fro-yo.  Then it was off to Disney to check in and SLEEP.

See the creepy animatric
Indiana Jones and
the giant boulder?
Sorry it's a little dark.

We really enjoyed both Disneyland and California Adventure, but...the best part was the Cars Land preview.  They've done some amazing things there.  Can't tell you any details, sorry.  Probably the most interesting thing after Cars Land was getting stuck in the Indiana Jones ride for a good 20 minutes next to my claustrophobic husband.  Keith kept his cool and eventually we were lead out by a couple of the workers, I just hated being stuck under the creepy animatronic Harrison Ford for so long.

We headed home later on Sunday to our furry friends.  As usual they were in great shape, but happy to see us.  Today I walked the dog, paid some bills, made a couple stupidly long phone calls to places like the insurance company (no big issues, just a lot of time on hold) and then Keith and I were off to San Francisco so I could get my lumbar puncture.  Lots of waiting for the doctor, but she was great.  The focus of her practice is central nervous system mets, so she does the lumbar punctures for all the oncologists.  She did a lot of talking, explaining that this test may give us a false negative.  She encouraged me to take part in a clinical trial- all I had to do was let her take an extra couple of milliliters of spinal fluid with which they'll do an even more sensitive test for cancer cells.  I geeked out a little about the trial.  Feel free to skip this next part:

Note: this is how it was explained to me, I'm assuming it is oversimplified, but after a quick look on the internet I couldn't find much more detail (often doctor's simplify in the interest of time).  I apologize in advance for any glitches in my explanations.

The normal way they look for cancer cells in your CSF (cerebral spinal fluid) is to take the fluid, spin it in a centrifuge, take the gunk at the bottom of the tube and smear it on a slide, and look at the slide to check for cancer cells.

The trial takes a much smaller sample and adds an antibody that bonds to the surface of cancer cells.  Not only does this antibody bond to cancer cells, but it's magnetic.  It can pull any cancer cells in the sample out with a magnet!  There is more to it than just that, but you get the idea.  Instead of just searching for cancer in a mix of a bunch of different cells, they're trying to concentrate cancer cells prior to looking for them.

Anyway, I signed up for that trial, but all that means is that the doctor took a little extra fluid.  Technically she can't tell me the results, but....my treatment plan would change depending on the results. This could really help me out another way too:  If my regular test comes back negative, the normal course of action would be to wait three weeks and do another spinal tap.  (Something I'd just assume avoid if possible).  The trial would make another tap unnecessary.

Sorry about that diversion.  I'm home from the lumbar puncture, laying flat on my back trying to avoid getting a headache (the result of having 20 milliliters of CSF removed, so I'll be laying low for a bit here).  I'm feeling pretty good.  My shoulder is getting more painful, but I'm still trying to avoid steroids for as long as possible.  I'll probably break down soon, but for now I'm hanging in.

Some more weekend photos:

Autopia - that's me in the background.

Lights in California Adventure right before the World of Color Show.

A gorgeous view from the Getty.