Friday, October 10th, 2008 -- Doing the Happy Dance!!

Dear Bloggy,

YAYAYAYAYAYA!! I'm doing the happy dance!!! I'm so happy tonight, I could just explode :D

Today was my appointment with Sharlene (oncologist) to go over the PET scan results and what our plan of action will be with the chemo, etc. I have to admit, it's not like I'm looking forward to going on chemo again, on the other hand, I'm a real fighter and if it means going on chemo to fight this beast, then chemo it will be!

Well, for starters... the PET scan. I was thrilled to hear that the scan was perfectly clear except for the lung nodule that we already know about. The other lung nodules that showed up on the CAT scan are just too small to light up on the PET scan, which explains why we didn't see them on the first PET scan, until we had an actual CAT scan done of the lungs.

So then Sharlene sat down with me to discuss our options. She says that even though, as an oncologist she is a chemotherapist, she would rather us get a third opinion rather than rushing in to go on chemo. There is this Radiologist specialist who works at the Radiology program out at Royal Columbian who is the only one in the lower mainland to do "ablations" on the lungs. An ablation is when he would use the CAT scan and with a needle and instrument, would go in and burn the small tumours/nodules. So rather than shrinking them with chemo, where there is the possibility they might come back, she would like to see if this Radiologist would feel I'd benefit from ablating the small nodules. I'm not sure what the criteria is, but if he doesn't think it would be possible, then we can always fall back on the Chemo plan. Only, this time, we would be replacing the Oxipilatin chemo that caused me so many problems with sensitivity to the cold and neuropathy in the feet, with another chemo drug.

Soooooo, I'm not exactly sure what the plan will be yet, but as Sharlene said, there is no need to panic or worry if we give ourselves some time to come up with the right treatment. These nodules, including the somewhat larger one, are growing so slowly, there is no rush to take the first option we can think of.

That is why I'm doing the happy dance tonight! We haven't run out of options at all!! :D :D

Hugggggs,

Cheryl

PS: I have managed to figure out how to put the excerpt of my reading a child's audiobook so you all can have a listen. If you click on this hyperlink it should take you to a page with a bar that you can click the play arrow and the sound file will start.