PET Scan Results
So I saw my oncologist Monday for the PET scan results. They were mixed.
Good news is my brain, lungs, and liver are clear. Which considering those are all areas that breast cancer commonly spreads to, is actually great news.
Mixed news is that while my spleen is not brightly glowing, it's still glowing and it shouldn't be. But since the masses don't appear to have grown significantly since the last round of CT scans and aren't a definitive malignancy according to the PET scan, and the only option for a biopsy is to take out the whole spleen, my oncologist wants to wait a month and observe them and then rerun the tests. Something I agree with fully, since my immune system is already screwed from the chemo and losing my spleen would make it worse.
Bad news is that the PET scan shows 2 areas lighting up on my spine. That, coupled with the fact that while my blood calcium went down, it's still dancing around on the edge of abnormally high, has my oncologist concerned. The spinal masses are tiny though, so he's going to wait to see what they look like on the next round of tests before deciding on what to do. At that time, he said he'll have my blood calcium checked again and, if it's still high, I'll need to have a bone marrow biopsy done because that will mean the masses are suspicious for metastatic breast cancer in the bone, leukemia or multiple myeloma.
I'm kind of up and down over the results. One minute, I'm ecstatic that my brain, lungs, and liver are clear and I don't have to lose my spleen just yet. But then the spots showing up on my spine and still not knowing what is going on in my spleen, have me freaking out. While I really appreciate the thorough but conservative approach that will save me from unnecessary surgeries, I really wish I had a definitive answer already. Wouldn't it be nice if I could just go down to the local drugstore, buy one of those over-the-counter home tests like pregnancy tests, take it home and just prick my finger or something and know in 5 minutes whether I have a new cancer or not? Yeah, fantasy land, I know it doesn't work like that. Just hate this feeling of being in limbo waiting for answers.
Speaking of waiting for answers, still waiting for the pathology results on the needle biopsies of the thyroid masses. But I had the biopsies done just last Friday and the radiologist said the results would take 'about a week', so I don't really expect to hear back on that until maybe Monday. Hey, at least that one I should get a definitive answer on, right? Unless of course, I'm one of those unlucky bastards who suffers through getting stabbed multiple times with a hollow needle, only for the pathology lab to say they didn't get enough of a sample of tumor cells to get an accurate result and the biopsies need to be redone. I know that the odds of that are low but I swear, if that happens to me, I'm going to cry. Or hit someone. Or possibly cry while hitting someone.
So that's where things stand for now, back in limbo land of waiting to run more tests. I'm sorry too if I worried anyone by not posting right away - I'm coming down with a cold and between being worn-out and frustrated, I just wasn't up to it. And again, thank you all for the comments, emails and texts, I really appreciate the support and it means a lot to me. Thank you.
This entry was originally posted at http://thdancingferret.dreamwidth.org/121104.html.
Good news is my brain, lungs, and liver are clear. Which considering those are all areas that breast cancer commonly spreads to, is actually great news.
Mixed news is that while my spleen is not brightly glowing, it's still glowing and it shouldn't be. But since the masses don't appear to have grown significantly since the last round of CT scans and aren't a definitive malignancy according to the PET scan, and the only option for a biopsy is to take out the whole spleen, my oncologist wants to wait a month and observe them and then rerun the tests. Something I agree with fully, since my immune system is already screwed from the chemo and losing my spleen would make it worse.
Bad news is that the PET scan shows 2 areas lighting up on my spine. That, coupled with the fact that while my blood calcium went down, it's still dancing around on the edge of abnormally high, has my oncologist concerned. The spinal masses are tiny though, so he's going to wait to see what they look like on the next round of tests before deciding on what to do. At that time, he said he'll have my blood calcium checked again and, if it's still high, I'll need to have a bone marrow biopsy done because that will mean the masses are suspicious for metastatic breast cancer in the bone, leukemia or multiple myeloma.
I'm kind of up and down over the results. One minute, I'm ecstatic that my brain, lungs, and liver are clear and I don't have to lose my spleen just yet. But then the spots showing up on my spine and still not knowing what is going on in my spleen, have me freaking out. While I really appreciate the thorough but conservative approach that will save me from unnecessary surgeries, I really wish I had a definitive answer already. Wouldn't it be nice if I could just go down to the local drugstore, buy one of those over-the-counter home tests like pregnancy tests, take it home and just prick my finger or something and know in 5 minutes whether I have a new cancer or not? Yeah, fantasy land, I know it doesn't work like that. Just hate this feeling of being in limbo waiting for answers.
Speaking of waiting for answers, still waiting for the pathology results on the needle biopsies of the thyroid masses. But I had the biopsies done just last Friday and the radiologist said the results would take 'about a week', so I don't really expect to hear back on that until maybe Monday. Hey, at least that one I should get a definitive answer on, right? Unless of course, I'm one of those unlucky bastards who suffers through getting stabbed multiple times with a hollow needle, only for the pathology lab to say they didn't get enough of a sample of tumor cells to get an accurate result and the biopsies need to be redone. I know that the odds of that are low but I swear, if that happens to me, I'm going to cry. Or hit someone. Or possibly cry while hitting someone.
So that's where things stand for now, back in limbo land of waiting to run more tests. I'm sorry too if I worried anyone by not posting right away - I'm coming down with a cold and between being worn-out and frustrated, I just wasn't up to it. And again, thank you all for the comments, emails and texts, I really appreciate the support and it means a lot to me. Thank you.
This entry was originally posted at http://thdancingferret.dreamwidth.org/121104.html.