Clean Scan

Yesterday Jennifer and I went in to see the oncologist and get the results of my latest PET Scan. The scan was clean, no sign of cancer, but there were a few minutes where things were a bit tense.

Let me explain.

The way it normally works is the nurse comes out and gets us, I get get weighed in, have the blood pressure and other tests done (my blood pressure is always high as I sit there, but that is no surprise when I am waiting for the results. I bet it drops a ton after the results are read.) Then the doctor comes in, reads his little printout from the radiologist that says there is no change between this scan and the last one, which is a good thing, and then we look through the images on his computer before physical exam.

Yesterday it pretty much went the same way, with one little bump.

The doctor came in, told me that all was good according to the readout he had from the radiologist. Then we look at the pictures. As we were look at the pictures he said, remember we are looking for spots that light up yellow or white, those are the ones that could be problems.

Well, we already had the report of the radiologist, so there would be no surprises, right?

Wrong.

We started to look at one of the lateral views, and then he stopped and went back to the previous image.

There was a spot around my vertebrae that appeared to light up.

It looked like it was in the same place as where I had radiation last spring even.

So he looks at it, then he looks at the pictures from last time, and then calls up the radiologist and they look together.

I am sure this only took a few minutes, but in my mind it took forever.

Finally he hangs up and says, the radiologist sees no difference from the last time. His screens are better than ours at looking at this stuff, and two of the radiologists over there agree there is nothing there, so I trust them.

This meant the scan was clean, no cancer.

He went on with the physical exam, told me that this cancer is one a number of places are working very hard on and there are more drugs coming out "just in case."

It's always good to have a just in case drug, I know from experience.

The meeting wasn't as calming as the times before, but the result was the same. The pill is working. There is no cancer. And there are more options coming in the future.

All of this is good news.

So last night Jennifer and I went out and celebrated. Now I am trying to put together a sermon.

Luckily I have 5 hours to finish it. I will need all the time I can get this time :)