Is that a tumor in your spleen or are you just happy to see me?
This past Tuesday, a week before I get my Pet Scan (which should really determine if the chemo did its job), I met with my oncologist, Dr. Woliver, to get a checkup and take a look at my previous CT scans and MRI.
Boy, what a difference a little chemo can make. Ok, a lot of chemo. Ok ok, twelve weeks' worth of chemo.
Dr. Woliver showed me several comparative and side-by-side) scans of my body. The left side contained scans taken in early November. The right side contained scans taken a few weeks ago. Since I don't have any pictures to show you, I decided to make my own. Below is my artistic rendition of one of the scans I was shown.
In the top image, notice two things:
- The tumor is huge! Some tumors were 5cm across.
- The tumor is pushing critical veins, connective tissue, and guts out of the way. I couldn't believe that I wasn't in more pain with the way some of my guts were skewed.
In the bottom, also notice two things:
- The tumor is almost gone (a small amount of material remains).
- My guts are back to their normal positions and sizes (whew!).
So of course I had several questions for my doctor. He told me that the main areas of my body that were "tumorrific" (my word, not his) were my throat, my chest, and my abdomen. I had a tumor against my esophagus, one against my spinal cord (oh yeah, I remember that one), one in my spleen, and a few others spread around my chest just to make things interesting.
The way he could detect the tumors was by knowing how things should look. When he saw an abmormality, he knew something bad was happening.
We're now at the point where everything has either gone away (my spleen looks clean) or has been greatly reduced in size. With Hodkins, the cancer doesn't necessarily disappear after chemo -- rather, it will shrink down to a dead little mass that will eventually shrink further. The Pet Scan will tell us if the tiny bits that remain are dead or alive.
If the remaining material is dead, then I can get 2-3 weeks of radiation and move on with my life (with somewhat frequent checkups). If the material is still cancerous, then they'll have to decide how to get rid of it. This may mean more chemo (blech!), stronger doses of radiation, or "other methods" (whatever that means).
I had a friend ask about the Pet Scan. She has just finished her battle with Hodgkins and was told that the Pet Scan may not be very effective with Hodgkins. I asked Dr. Woliver about this and he told me that he and his colleagues are very comfortable with the Pet Scan. The Santa Barbara Cancer Center has a dedicated machine and technician just for the Pet Scan. Apparently, other hospitals may not have this capability, thereby dimishing the effectiveness of the scan.
I want the Pet Scan to be negative on Tuesday! Everyone pray for it!
More in about a week. Wish me luck. The pressure's on!
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