I returned to Johns Hopkins Hospital's Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center's Head and Neck Cancer Center for follow-up appointments on April 16, 2013, one year and four months post-treatment. My doctors had not indicated a PET or CT scan for this visit, apparently an indication of their determination that I was recovering well from treatment and that the four post-treatment PET scans would have shown any tendency toward re-initiation of tumor growth. Doctors Marur, Gouin, and Quon all examined me this visit, Dr. Gourin with an endoscope. Dr. Quon examined my tonsillar area and larynx visually and tactilely. They all commented that my tissues had healed so well that it wasn't apparent that I had undergone radiation treatment. Dr. Quon commented, I sensed with a bit of pride over the skill of his programming of my radiation field exposure, on the re-growth of the hair of my beard along my jaw and the substantial saliva on his examination glove when he removed his fingers from my gullet.
My doctors recommended that I return for my next visit in six months. Since they'll probably want a two-year post-treatment PET scan, I'll need to clarify whether I return in October, which would be six months from this visit, or in early December, which would be two years following the end of my treatment.
As always, I've enjoyed seeing and spending time with Raquel, who once again drove me to my Baltimore for my appointments, and also visiting my friends Mark and Bella Smith. Mark and I played 18 holes of golf (with a cart) on the Lakes Course at Twin Lakes Golf Course in Centreville VA. I also went into Washington DC one day and visited the Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution to see the Cyrus Cylinder, with its cruciform account of King Cyrus II of Persia's liberation of the Jews and other peoples from slavery upon his conquest of Babylon around 530 BC. The sun-baked clay cylinder, discovered by a British archaeologist in 1879 while excavating Babylon, resides permanently in the British Museum, and was loaned to the Iranians in 1971 when Shah Pahlavi celebrated the 2,500 anniversary of the Persian empire of Cyrus the Great. A replica of the cylinder was presented by Pahlavi to the United Nations, which considers Cyrus's declaration engraved on the cylinder that the peoples of his kingdom were free to practice their religions and customs and have their religious objects returned to be the "Original Declaration of Human Rights." I was fortunate that my follow-up medical visit allowed me the opportunity to see the Cyrus Cylinder in person.
I fly tomorrow to Chicago to visit Tim and Bret and meet my grandson Oliver Stephen Ford. I'm excited about holding and getting to know our first grandchild. Damaris flew there the day before I flew to DC, and has no doubt already spoiled Ollie.
