Timeline
A chronology of the journey so far: symptoms, diagnosis, staging, and treatment. Dates are added as the record grows.
It started with a whoosh
A doctor’s appointment for pulsatile tinnitus led to a CBC showing hemoglobin around 5 g/dL. I was sent to the emergency department and received blood transfusions.
Endoscopy
An endoscopy found a large cratered Forrest Class III ulcer in the gastric cardia/GE junction with heaped-up edges, suspicious for malignancy. Biopsies were taken.
The CT scan changes everything
CT imaging showed the gastric-cardia mass and multiple indeterminate liver lesions concerning for metastases—the point at which the situation appeared likely to be stage IV.
MRI
Abdominal MRI became part of the rapid staging workup as we tried to determine what the suspicious liver findings actually represented.
MSK PET/CT
After transferring care to Memorial Sloan Kettering, PET/CT added another view of the primary tumor and the uncertain liver lesions.
Liver ultrasound
Additional imaging focused on the liver lesions that were driving the largest staging uncertainty.
Staging laparoscopy
A staging laparoscopy completed another major piece of the workup before treatment planning.
First cadonilimab dose
I received the induction dose of cadonilimab on MSK phase II trial MSK 26-102 / NCT07631000. Expedition 31 moved from planning into treatment.
Cadonilimab + FLOT begins
The chemotherapy phase began with cadonilimab plus FLOT under the clinical-trial protocol.
The expedition is underway
Treatment, recovery, research, appointments, and waiting. No retrospective ending written in advance; this timeline changes as the facts change.