Here we go again …

The outcome of the clinical session with oncology, surgery & nuclear medicine yesterday seems to be that nobody knows what’s going on. Yet. According to the CT scan I had last week, there are two spots in the area of the peritonaeum that was biopsied in September that might be tumours, even though the three samples taken and tested twice have come back negative for malignancy. Also, the liver tumours that showed up on the PET scan I had in June have seemingly disappeared. And so, another PET scan has been scheduled for next Tuesday.

According to Ricardo, the surgeon will still want to operate again even if the liver tumours are gone (though he thinks it’s more likely that they’ve shrunk) to make sure that there is nothing left in those areas, as well as remove the peritoneal ‘tumours’.  But any possible surgery will depend on the outcome of the PET scan and the state of the peritoneal area.

But hey, at least there is some hope now. Though It means more testing and more waiting. And even though I’m not thrilled about having more surgery, it sure beats the alternative.

Meanwhile … I’m off to Córdoba! Hasta mañana!

It’s no wonder I feel like an emotional yo-yo these days.

The latest “good news” is that the second biopsy of the peritoneal area also came back negative, so that is a definite thing and Ricardo says there’s no way it could be a false negative.  On the other hand, the CT scan showed two spots in the area that could be tumours. Meanwhile, it also showed – are you ready? – that my liver tumours have seemingly disappeared! Like – WTF?

Ricardo is at a loss to explain any of this, especially as he got this information for me by telephone and didn’t see the results himself. But there will be a clinical session on Wednesday morning which Isabel (from The Team) will attend and he says they will be able to give me a better idea of what’s going on after that. Though I was told I shouldn’t be surprised if they want me to have another PET scan, and so I’m not going to believe the other tumours are gone until that’s done.

Zoomer was here when I got the phone call from Ricardo (Nog was out teaching) and he immediately gave me a big bear hug and was smiling ear to ear … but although I was very pleased about some of the news, I didn’t want to get overly-excited about it. Been there. It’s worse when you aren’t acknowledging the worst still might just happen.

Other good news of the day.  I got a lovely and totally unexpected ‘goody bag’ from Lizzie in the post today. Trashy mags, tea, organic chocolate, lip balm, Bach flower rescue remedy, body scrub and special soap, and a whack of info (including a dvd) from the Penny Brohn Cancer Centre.  And I also got a notice that the Anti-Cancer book from hmh is waiting for me at the post office. All this after a very nice lunch out with zoomer, Nog and Pipocas – and Dr A even stopped by to meet everyone.

I’m very happy. It was a fabulous day.

~ image from snore & guzzle ~