And the verdict is...

I need another test. I met with my radiologist, Dr. Weisenburger, and after looking at my x-rays and CT scan, it's been determined that I need to have a Pet Scan before determining whether or not the cancer has really gone away.

So what does that mean exactly?

A Pet Scan is (and I'm mixing paraphrasing with pure lying) where they inject me with a chemical that will help determine whether or not the remaining "material" is active with cancer or not. The chemical contains a radioactive element used to seek out cancer by starving my body of sugar for a day. When they inject the chemical into me, it will end up in the areas most starved for sugar. Since cancer contains such rapidly-growing cells, they'll be the most starved, thus attracting the radioactive chemical. If there's still cancer, the Pet Scan will show it.

The chemo worked, however, and some areas have cleared up while others have shrunk to the point where a Pet Scan will be required to determine if there's any cancer left (there will always be shrunken cancer material remaining from the chemo treatment).

The catheter in my chest will have to stay in until after the scan. Yuck. I'm ready for a real shower!

I'll get the Pet Scan on Feb 19, so stay tuned. Thanks to everyone who was thinking of me today. I really appreciate it.

m