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Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Scan-a-riffic

Ended up being a no chemo day, but for good news reasons this time. My oncologist says that it looks like my latest PET scan shows shrinkage in the lung tumors, and nothing new has shown up. However, all three of my PET scans have been read by three different radiologists. And one was done in a different facility with a different machine. He wants one radiologist to look at all three scans and report on them as a whole. We will meet again after that has happened (in another week, next Thursday) to talk about the scans and his recommendation. If things have shrunk, then it's probably time for me to go ahead and set up the surgery to resect them. So... we could be on to the next step in this journey.

He decided to hold the chemo for the time being because I will need to be at my best if surgery is coming soon. Not a good idea to go in with low WBC counts, too much risk for post-op infection. I was not at all disappointed to be turned away from chemo this time. It seems like good news, and I'm more than happy to be in prep for surgery if that is the case. I can almost imagine that I can see the light at the end of this tunnel again. It feels really good to possibly be moving forward in this process. The surgery is daunting and that will be a few weeks of suck to recover from. But if it cuts out the last of the tumors, then we may be close to the end of all this.

Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty positive today. It is good to hear that the chemo has been doing its job. I was mildly concerned that I've gone through three months of crap for no good reason. But it looks like that isn't the case. I am back to the waiting game again... yet it doesn't bother me so much right now. I expect confirmation next week and I will quickly set up an appointment with my thoracic surgeon to get her opinion soon after. Hopefully she will agree and we'll get me rushed into her surgery queue. That's my optimism showing. But I'm sticking with the positive attitude tonight. Even celebrating with a couple glasses of wine. Two weeks out of chemo and off the antibiotics, I can have a drink without issue. Some normalcy. It's a good day.

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