PET Scan... Keep Your Fingers Crossed For Me

CherylHutch said:

Thans, all!
Thanks everyone. Tomorrow afternoon (3pm PDT) is my appt., and you know how those go. By late afternoon the doctors are usually running behind... then again, it is the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend up here, so they may have a lighter load on Friday afternoon . Anywho... I have been keeping my mind very busy this week, trying not to think too much about it.

Apparently, from what I remember, the 3 small nodules are so small that they wouldn't have shown up on the PET scan 6 months ago. But 2 of them have grown slightly in the past 6 months. 1 of them is unchanged, so that one could be scar tissue. But they did find a new one on this newest CT scan.. it too, is very small. As my surgeon said, the nodules that have shown any growth (the 2 small one plus the 1/2" one that did show up on the PET scan 6 months ago) are growing "agonizingly slow". Even the larger one only grew 2mm in 6 months, which is apparently very slow.

So, I am going in, knowing that I will hear that the 1/2" nodule is still there and lighting up the scan. What I don't want to hear is that the scan has lit up anywhere else in my body. We will also be going over the plan for chemo, but , I am going to tell my onc, "Sharlene... no insertion of the portacath until AFTER Oct 19th!" Why, you might ask? Because we are having a HUGE Celebration of Life and Friendship party on Oct 19th.

This all came about when we were discussing how sad it is that the only time old friends and family get together is usually at someone's funeral or memorial service... and on those occasions, it's not like you can be excited and have fun to see everyone again. So I tossed around the idea that, heck, one should have a Celebration of Life and Friendship when a person is still with us, and could use the support of friendship to go down the rough journey that a long term illness usually has. Well, that is coming to fruitation next weekend!

There are about 200 friends who have confirmed they will be there. I am involved with the local theatre community, so one of the theatre's is letting me have the theatre on a Sunday night. A bunch of my musical theatre friends are putting together a musical cabaret (since musical theatre is my favourite genre of theatre) and my boss from when I was working (haven't been to work in two years, but they still include me on everything) has volunteered to have me shave his head so we can have a couple of friends go around with hats collecting money to give to the BC Cancer Agency for Research, specifically for Colon Cancer. This didn't start out as a fundraiser... it really is a party to celebrate life and friendship, but since there will be quite a few people there, what the heck, we may as well make a difference at the same time

Hahaha... so no, I don't want the portacath inserted sometime next week and then have a sore arm/shoulder while at the party

I'm thrilled they are doing this for me... and I just know that the energy in that theatre is going to be so positive and so wonderful, that it will carry me through this next leg of the chemo journey. Besides , my friend, Brian, who is a professional photographer, is going to video tape the musical cabaret and then will video throughout the party, edit the tape and put it on a DVD for me. Then, whenever I feel a bit down or just not feeling that well, I'll be able to pop the DVD into a player and remind myself how truly blessed I am with such supportive friends and family.

I wish you all could come to the party!!

Huggggggs,

Cheryl

CherylHutch said:

YAYAYAYAYAYA!!
All your positive thoughts and energies worked!!

I'm just so darn excited and relieved at the same time!! The scan came back perfectly clear, except for the one nodule on the lung that we knew about. The other smaller nodules are just too small to register on the scan.

But the visit with Sharlene (my onc) and one of the residents (Dan) learning under her went way better than I was expecting! She said that, once again, I'm a bit of an enigma. The nodules are so small and all of them, even the larger one we know about, is growing so agonizingly slow, that it's hard to determine what they are at this point. She says that we have time on our side since they are growing so slowly that she would like to get a third opinion... and this is from a Radiologist who works out of a different hospital, about an hour's drive from my place. This Radiologist is the only one in the area that does "ablations" to the lungs... so she wants him to check over my CAT scans and PET scans and see if I would benefit from having him ablate these small nodules. That is where they use a CAT scan machine and a needle that has some kind of tool where, when the can burn the nodule. If I'm a good candidate for this procedure, it would save me having to go through chemo again.

Sharlene said that, although she, herself, is a chemotherapist, she would rather research other options, knowing we can always fall back on the chemo route if we need to. Since I had a real hard time with the Oxiliptin the last time, she says that if we do end up going with the chemo, then she would not be giving me Oxi this time. Instead, she would probably give me a combo of 5FU, Irinotecun and Avastin.

I told her that I'm up for whatever we need to do... where I get down, panicky, or afraid, is if I don't have a plan. Waiting and not knowing what is going to happen creates enormous stress with me. But as long as we have a plan, I'm a happy camper

Soooo, I am doing the happy, happy dance tonight!! It would be great if we could ablate this little critters, but even if I do have to go back on chemo, I'm ok with that I KNOW that Sharlene will go out of her way to make sure that if there are any side affects or discomfort, we get rid of them.

So life goes on... the difference is, I'm thoroughly enjoying it more than I ever was aware before

Huggggggs,

Cheryl

CherylHutch said:

YAYAYAYAYAYA!!
All your positive thoughts and energies worked!!

I'm just so darn excited and relieved at the same time!! The scan came back perfectly clear, except for the one nodule on the lung that we knew about. The other smaller nodules are just too small to register on the scan.

But the visit with Sharlene (my onc) and one of the residents (Dan) learning under her went way better than I was expecting! She said that, once again, I'm a bit of an enigma. The nodules are so small and all of them, even the larger one we know about, is growing so agonizingly slow, that it's hard to determine what they are at this point. She says that we have time on our side since they are growing so slowly that she would like to get a third opinion... and this is from a Radiologist who works out of a different hospital, about an hour's drive from my place. This Radiologist is the only one in the area that does "ablations" to the lungs... so she wants him to check over my CAT scans and PET scans and see if I would benefit from having him ablate these small nodules. That is where they use a CAT scan machine and a needle that has some kind of tool where, when the can burn the nodule. If I'm a good candidate for this procedure, it would save me having to go through chemo again.

Sharlene said that, although she, herself, is a chemotherapist, she would rather research other options, knowing we can always fall back on the chemo route if we need to. Since I had a real hard time with the Oxiliptin the last time, she says that if we do end up going with the chemo, then she would not be giving me Oxi this time. Instead, she would probably give me a combo of 5FU, Irinotecun and Avastin.

I told her that I'm up for whatever we need to do... where I get down, panicky, or afraid, is if I don't have a plan. Waiting and not knowing what is going to happen creates enormous stress with me. But as long as we have a plan, I'm a happy camper

Soooo, I am doing the happy, happy dance tonight!! It would be great if we could ablate this little critters, but even if I do have to go back on chemo, I'm ok with that I KNOW that Sharlene will go out of her way to make sure that if there are any side affects or discomfort, we get rid of them.

So life goes on... the difference is, I'm thoroughly enjoying it more than I ever was aware before

Huggggggs,

Cheryl