Well, I got the results back from my P.A. regarding my PET scan and it looks like I had an "Excellent Response"!!! All of the previously infected nodes have resolved and there is no evidence of viable disease (no uptake)! Great news!!!!!!
There is one caveat however, and it's a scary caveat... There was a portion of the report that stated I have "assymetrical uptake in my cerebral cortex and left opcipticlal (sp?) muscle. This could mean nothing... Or, it could mean that the Lymphoma went up into my brain/eye muscle to hide out while the war was raging down in my body. There's such a thing as the blood brain barrier (bbb) that prevents any chemo from entering the brain. It's standard operating procedure to check the brain for any evidence of disease via spinal tap prior to therapy. However, my transplant onc. checked the results of my required bone marrow biopsy and thought I was an extremely low risk for the cancer to be in my brain based on having clean bone marrow. I kinda wish I would have had that test now but what can you do?
So, the next steps are to go to my consult with my primary Oncologist on Monday and peg him with questions. My buddy fighting a Glioblastoma e-mailed my information to his Onc./Neuroligist and he recommended I get an MRI and spinal tap (although he's not intimately familiar with my particular case). I'm just going to wait and see what happens and like always hope for the best!
Until then, I'm just going to try and enjoy the great news and focus on the "Excellent Response" I had from the two stem cell transplants.
Why can't things ever be easy?
2 comments:
Hi. I've been following your journey through your blog and I couldn't be happier and more excited for you. That's great news. My best friend was dx with NHL DLBC almost two years ago and is doing great. He's also had some things show up on his scans that turned out to be nothing. You're gonna do great.
Congrats. You're an inspiration.
Jim O'Heir
Ugh........I don't like grey anymore - black and white all the way. Sorry you're having to face a bit of uncertainty, but as the previous poster said it'll probably turn out to be nothing, all kinds of things show up on these scans.
I hope you still manage to celebrate this HUGE victory against the disease........hoping you get the rest resolved quickly so you can get on with all the plans you have for your life.......Vx
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