good news today

SmithMama2

I am so happy to write that my husband Kevin had a good report from his recent PET/CT scans today. They found three very tiny blips that the doctors are not at all concerned about that will be monitored at the next scans in March. He is also having an ultra sound to check his thyroid at the end of the month. It is not lit up like it has cancer, but they did want to examine it further. Tomorrow we meet with the ENT, and the oncologists mentioned that the ENT may want to dilate his throat if it is too narrow. Has anyone had this done who might share a bit about what that might feel like? Do they do it in the office, or is it a procedure done under anesthetic at the hospital?

Thanks again for all the support I have gotten from this site over these past few months. It has been invaluable!!!

Blessings on you ALL!
Karen

Hondo

Hi SmithMama2
Glad to hear Kevin got a good report, can’t say I every hard about dilating the throat but let me know how it works as I have a lot of problems in that area too. I go for my PET tomorrow morning; I am praying that this time they will find nothing.

Take care and keep strong in Faith

SmithMama2

Hondo said:

Hi SmithMama2
Glad to hear Kevin got a good report, can’t say I every hard about dilating the throat but let me know how it works as I have a lot of problems in that area too. I go for my PET tomorrow morning; I am praying that this time they will find nothing.

Take care and keep strong in Faith

my prayers are with you!!!
Dear Hondo,

My prayers are with you during your PET today! I hope you have a clean scan and great news for the holidays!!!!!! I grew up not so far from your part of the world, so I hear your accent when I read your posts. Please know that there are lots of folks here who are sending you the very best of good wishes!

Karen

cwcad

SmithMama2 said:

my prayers are with you!!!
Dear Hondo,

My prayers are with you during your PET today! I hope you have a clean scan and great news for the holidays!!!!!! I grew up not so far from your part of the world, so I hear your accent when I read your posts. Please know that there are lots of folks here who are sending you the very best of good wishes!

Karen

So glad to hear good news!!
It is always good for me to read of positive things that happen to people with the type of cancer that your husband, Hondo, and I have.

I cannot say that I have heard of dilating the throat either. They light up my throat every time I see a radiologist or ENT. They love sticking their lighted scope camera "UP" into my nose to look "DOWN" into my throat. They used to spray a numbing agent in my nose to prepare for the procedure and then wait 15 or so before they would begin. After the first spray it was very apparent to me that I would never have the spray put up my nose again. That was worse than the scope camera itself.

I am in process of scheduling my three year cancer free Pet Scan for the end of January or the first of February 2010. It does get better. You , Hondo, and this website have helped me immeasurably in the past days and weeks.

soccerfreaks

Dilation
Karen,

I had my first dilation just a couple of weeks ago (Nov. 23). It was a day surgery: I arrived at the hospital at 10:30 for the usual pre-op paperwork and was home by 3:30 that afternoon.

Anesthesia IS used, but at least in my case the first part of the procedure was done prior to administration of the 'ether'. Had this been performed by a GI crew (gastointestinal folks), as I understand it, it would have been handled differently: they would have knocked me out virtually at once and gone in and done the deed, which basically amounts to blowing up a balloon in the esophagus so that it expands it without exploding it.

In my case, since ENT Man was going in, he decided to do what is referred to as a Pandescopy, which included a laryngoscopy (sp?), bronchoscopy, endoscopy, AND the dilation I thought I was going in for (along with a biopsy if thought necessary, but which, fortunately, was not).

Therefore, it was necessary for me to be awake while they inserted the camera UP my nose to look DOWN, as someone else so eloquently puts it. This was because the scope was going into my trachea first, and it therefore had to be open, and I needed to be awake for that, for some reason.

As a result of surgical and radiation scarring, I have what is referred to as trismus, which means my mouth does not open as wide as it should, so they had to go in through my nose, as indicated above and this HURT. (I write all about it in my blog on this site, if you are interested in the details, Karen.)

Hopefully, your hub can skip that part of the deal.

In any event, I can assure you that the post-op situation is not too bad. They gave me a pain med but I only took it once (for a sore throat). The sore throat lasted for a few days, to be sure, and for the first couple of days I was advised to go with soft foods (yogurt, the usual suspects).

I will see ENT Man the first of next week to go over the results (I know that they managed to get a 6mm expansion this time) to see if we need to, want to, and CAN go for it again. I am hopeful that there is still room for improvement and would do it again, despite my description of it in my blog entry .

As for the thyroid, if they have not done so you might ask them to also consider getting bloodwork to check out its functionality (radiation has been known to throw the thyroid out of whack, and this can lead to various issues).

In the meantime, I join others in congratulating your husband and his primary caregiver for your combined success to date as evidenced by the results of this last scan!

Take care,

Joe

fishingirl

That is so good to hear! I
That is so good to hear! I hope all turns out well for your hubbie!! Let us know:)
Cindy

delnative

Excellent!
That's great to hear about Kevin's PET/CT scans. It seems there's a lot of good news floating around this forum these days.
And that's a good thing.

--Jim in Delaware

Kent Cass

delnative said:

Excellent!
That's great to hear about Kevin's PET/CT scans. It seems there's a lot of good news floating around this forum these days.
And that's a good thing.

--Jim in Delaware

good news
Indeed, Jim and Karen. False positives seem to be common in regards to the PS and us, as the Otos/ENTs are aware of. And, yeah, GOOD NEWS is with us. Believe, and it is fact.

Hondo

soccerfreaks said:

Dilation
Karen,

I had my first dilation just a couple of weeks ago (Nov. 23). It was a day surgery: I arrived at the hospital at 10:30 for the usual pre-op paperwork and was home by 3:30 that afternoon.

Anesthesia IS used, but at least in my case the first part of the procedure was done prior to administration of the 'ether'. Had this been performed by a GI crew (gastointestinal folks), as I understand it, it would have been handled differently: they would have knocked me out virtually at once and gone in and done the deed, which basically amounts to blowing up a balloon in the esophagus so that it expands it without exploding it.

In my case, since ENT Man was going in, he decided to do what is referred to as a Pandescopy, which included a laryngoscopy (sp?), bronchoscopy, endoscopy, AND the dilation I thought I was going in for (along with a biopsy if thought necessary, but which, fortunately, was not).

Therefore, it was necessary for me to be awake while they inserted the camera UP my nose to look DOWN, as someone else so eloquently puts it. This was because the scope was going into my trachea first, and it therefore had to be open, and I needed to be awake for that, for some reason.

As a result of surgical and radiation scarring, I have what is referred to as trismus, which means my mouth does not open as wide as it should, so they had to go in through my nose, as indicated above and this HURT. (I write all about it in my blog on this site, if you are interested in the details, Karen.)

Hopefully, your hub can skip that part of the deal.

In any event, I can assure you that the post-op situation is not too bad. They gave me a pain med but I only took it once (for a sore throat). The sore throat lasted for a few days, to be sure, and for the first couple of days I was advised to go with soft foods (yogurt, the usual suspects).

I will see ENT Man the first of next week to go over the results (I know that they managed to get a 6mm expansion this time) to see if we need to, want to, and CAN go for it again. I am hopeful that there is still room for improvement and would do it again, despite my description of it in my blog entry .

As for the thyroid, if they have not done so you might ask them to also consider getting bloodwork to check out its functionality (radiation has been known to throw the thyroid out of whack, and this can lead to various issues).

In the meantime, I join others in congratulating your husband and his primary caregiver for your combined success to date as evidenced by the results of this last scan!

Take care,

Joe

Hi Joe

I felt your pain while reading you post, as you know my Jaw only opens ½ inch so I hope I never need this dilating thing.

Take care and be strong