positive scan results

I saw the IR (interventional radiologist) today at UMMC. He was very pleased with the scan one month post ablation. He said the liver ablation looked great. He said I timed it perfectly after the y90 I had done in July. The chestwall ablation wasnt as clear. There might be a very thin line of tumor left next to my spine. Its hard to say at this point and will scan in three month intervals. He is 80% confident that he got all the chest wall tumor but he had to be real careful how much cryo he applied near my spine or run the risk of paralysis. If it turns out that that line is surviving tumor he will go back in with IRE (Nanoknife). Bottom line we were both very pleased with the results so far.

I asked about my enlarged spleen. He said not to worry unless my platelets drop to 50. He said the cause is portal hypertension. Basically when my liver grew back after my last resection it start putting some pressure on the portal vein causing some of the blood normally traveling through there to back up into the spleen and cause a build up.

If my platelets drop to 50 he can do a spleen embolization. It is a simple outpatient proceedure where he blocks off some of the blood supply to the spleen causing it to shink back its normal size and raise my platelets. What a relief. I know some people have had a splenectomy to raise thier platelets and i wanted to avoid another major surgery if i could. This doctor is amazing.

He thinks i should either stay off chemo or just do maintinance chemo. I will see my oncologist on wednesday to discuss either staying off chemo or do ADAPT therapy (xeloda and celebrex). I asked Dr Lin in Seattle to recommend the dosage since I MIGHT be NED now and he responded with his recommendation.

Oh and my IR thinks I might be at the point that when something pops up he can ablate.