I've wanted to write this post several times, but wasn't able to put a positive spin on it... I've had several more tests since my last update. But I blew this off like it was summer vacation or something. So let me sum up the past few months.
I had my three month PET scan back at the end of June. The results were sorta mixed. There was good news in that the inoperable spot in my liver didn't show up at all on the scan. However, I had two small spots on the surface of my liver. My doc was optimistic right off the bat because of their location and how they looked. He thought that it was most likely scar tissue from the adhesion between my liver and diaphragm. But, we should do blood work as well. They drew blood in the office that very day, and I heard back on July 3 that my CEA marker had ticked up just a little bit. From 3.something to 5.something). Anything above 5 is considered elevated. Keep in mind, though, my CEA was over 900 on my first test back in January 2014.
Ok, so all that being said, this was where we were. The uptake alone was not too concerning, the CEA alone was not too concerning. The two combined? Concerning. Time for another test!
My first oncology related MRI! Only my second MRI period. I was actually kind of happy to get an MRI instead of a PET or CT, there's no radiation involved. I feel like I should start flinging webs, or become invisible or something pretty soon from all the radiation I've received. It took a couple of weeks before I could get in... The MRI was pretty uneventful itself. It just takes a long time. I was in that tube for 45 minutes. Much longer that a CT!
Now we play the waiting game again. It was July 27 when I received a call from my nurse/navigator. She asked if I had heard from the oncologist's office yet. When I said no, she said I better call in. I didn't like the sounds of that and said this sound like bad news. She said I couldn't tell you either way, and you don't that sort of information from me anyway, do you! I was driving to Alpena while this was happening, and there is a lot of dead area out in the middle of all that forest. I called and asked for my results, they said they would call back. Then, I drove into the middle of nowhere and wouldn't know if they called back or not.
When I finally got a call back, it was from a nurse who was reading the PAs notes who had read the radiologists notes. She said the the good news was that between the PET and MRI, the spots had not changed in size, but the were some things that were "concerning", and that I needed to schedule an appointment with the oncologist ASAP.
That catches you up to last Monday. I went into that visit expecting bad news. (Oh, by the way, I picked up a stomach bug over that weekend, and ended up in the emergency room and had ANOTHER CT scan)
When I finally got to talk to the doc, he was pretty funny, and not at all what I was expecting. He said that he still believed it was scar tissue and that there was no "enhancement" on the MRI. (That's roughly the equivalent of uptake on a PET scan and has to do with the contrast dye.) His opinion was that even in the worst case, if it were something bad, it is growing so slow that we would still catch it plenty early on the next scan. That next scan will be in about two months and it will be another MRI. If it is something bad, it's a fairly simple procedure to remove them from the surface.
Let's pray that's not necessary.
amen
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