PET scan results

Greetings all! I am coming out of my best round yet (#4). It was not as easy as my “plan”, but it was definitely better than normal. And, as an added bonus, I did not end up in the hospital as I have on my last two rounds. Right now, I am feeling pretty good. Jake has mentioned this before, but the middle ground is hard. I feel good enough to come home, but have to deal with a nagging, upset stomach that is more irritating than painful for several more days.

But, my point of this entry is not to tell you about my symptoms in the game of chemo. I got a call from my oncologist’s nurse, Terre, yesterday with my PET/CT scan results. Our conversation started like this; Terre: “Hi Jessica, are you at a point where I can read you results and you can write them down?” Me: (happy for the call, but worrying about all the stuff I was about to have to write down!) “Sure”, I say. Terre: “It’s all good news.”

And it was. It was the kind of news that just creates more questions, but it was great news. The scan showed no new growth! But better news was the many “spots” that showed up last time, were now showing up as “treated disease”. Terre explained to me that it would be like seeing scar tissue on a scan. It is not scar tissue, but it is evidence that I once had tumor spots and they have been treated , and are essentially not there any more.

In case you are new to my story, I had “spots” showing up on my last PET scan on my breast, auxiliary, nodes in my lungs, kidney, liver, abdomen, spine, and clavicle.

The scan still shows spots on my right breast and auxiliary area (… that’s my arm pit!).

I started asking Terre all these questions that I really just needed to wait until my appointment with Dr. Haley and ask her (on July 14^th). Like, what does this mean for my treatment; can I just have surgery now; how many more rounds; will I always see evidence of treated disease or will that go away too…….

Terre kindly directed me to Dr. Haley, and then said that they like to take a scan like this after several rounds to see if they are on the right path with my treatment and on the right cancer drug mix. I think, quite loudly, that answer was yes.

Thank you for praying with me. We can celebrate together this one victory. I am excited about what is to come.