PET/CT scan: Update and plan

Hello all

Off to SLC and the Huntsman for my follow up PET/CT to take a look at the 2 suspect lung nodules and one lung lymph node at 11:30AM tomorrow. This is a difficult one because in one quick look I can go from NED status 2 years out to incurable. I recognize that I'm not alone in this category, though I really, really wish none of us were in this category. On the one hand I feel calm knowing that I am doing all that I can to make my body an inhospitable host for cancer, and on the other, much is out of my control with this cancer beast. This is what it must feel to walk the razor's edge. The Razor’s Edge is a book by W. Somerset Maugham published in 1944. Its epigraph reads, "The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to Salvation is hard." taken from verse in the Katha-Upanishad. Mostly I have taken comfort in this excerpt from Letters to a Young Poet by Ranier Maria Rilke Letter 8 "So you mustn't be frightened, dear Mr. Kappus, if a sadness rises in front of you, larger than any you have ever seen; if an anxiety, like light and cloud-shadows, moves over your hands and over everything you do. You must realize that something is happening to you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall."

We leave early in the morning for the 5 hr drive and it should be a nice day traveling across the SW part of Wyoming before dropping down into NE Utah. Yesterday my husband and I and our 3 horses and border collie returned from a 3 day pack trip into the Winds right here. The weather has turned and fall is very present up high though we never got rained or snowed on while we were riding. Our highest pass was 10,400' which gave us a great view of Wind River Peak, the highest peak in the Southern Wind rivers (second highest in WY), and the surround. We found good camps with good feed for the horses. Yesterday morning a cow moose was in camp licking on a salt block and I got to watch her from the tent wrapped in the sleeping bag while sipping coffee. Hanging out in the woods was a great way to take my mind off scans.

My love to all,
Leslie

*UPDATE*

Well it's a bad news/good news things. As we were all hoping for the nodules to disappear, they didn't but only one grew to 8.8 (2mm growth) and now there is a 6+ uptake in the one that 2.8 uptake before and another has a 4+ uptake. The radiologists says 80% chance they are cancerous. So I guess if they're going to be there, it could've been worse and I'm grateful for the slow growth. However I likely now have progressive disease in the lungs and am not a surgical candidate. I will go ahead with the VATS lung biopsy, probably Sept 29 at the Huntsman although both mets (one upper left, one lower right) are under 1 cm and may or may not be big enough yet and they are not in a good position for needle biopsy.

Of course this is deflating and depressing for me. The one shining light is that my CA doc sent off my records to the docs at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Integrative medicine who have been doing IV Vitamin C therapy and also have a clinical trial going. The doc there thinks I am the ideal candidate for this therapy because IV C specifically addresses metabolic changes and my mets are small. I am not going to Kansas City to participate in the clinical but would like to follow the protocol here in WY (though it will be a challenge to find the willing docs). I can always got to CA to start the therapy with my doc there. The therapy does not interfere with chemo if I have to got that route (likely) but can enhance it. Perhaps down the road surgical procedure of some sort would become available if mets shrink or disappear.

Here is the link to info for University of Kansas IV C therapy

http://integrativemed.kumc.edu/ivvitaminc.htm.

Love to all, and much gratefulness for all those who have shared or are sharing info on CRC lung mets and therapies.

Leslie