What Time Is It? Results Time

I have a confession to make. I’ve had these results a few days and been sitting on them. You know why? No, not because I’m cruel like that. It’s because I could take it as the final word until I heard from the doctor. Well I finally got a message saying yes, it’s true.

It’s been so long since we had anything positive to read from a scan. Every scan for the last hear and a half has been to see just how much worse things have gotten. Finally, this time the scan shows while still not great, we made some movement in a better direction.

These are just the summary impressions from the two scans. Abdominal and chest area. Let me break it down for you. The abdominal cavity is where I have most of the tumor masses. Lots and lots of them and one of particular size. The impression there was “improvement...now more low in density suggesting necrosis.”

In radiologist speak them’s powerful words. In my experience and at the suggestion of my oncologist, radiology reports typically stick to the bare facts so you have to evaluate carefully the tone and inclusion of specific wording.

The full report includes all the measurements and changes in size, but in short each tumor mass showed reduction in size and density.

Now on the chest scan the wording also says “less pronounced” which is good and cause to be happy. The rest about in contact with the heart and such is less favorable and explains some of the symptoms I’ve experienced in recent months.

So I read this in my account but there’s also other considerations as to whether they continue me on the trial like various levels in my bloodwork. My liver is taking a beating and shows in a high bilirubin count and my jaundiced yellow eyes. That one has some cause for concern, but hopefully something we can address without stopping treatment.

But now the message came in that the results look good, the tumors are responding so I’m continuing in the trial. Wahoo! We’re happy ‘round here to have that news and hope this drug continues to show good results.

There are no guarantees it will keep beating this back. My first drug worked for awhile, until it didn’t. There’s every chance this could be temporary as in a few months, but the possibility it could last even longer. For now we’ll take the good results with a good measure of gratitude.

Tomorrow I head back to Phoenix for more bloodwork, ECG and doc visits with hopefully some direction with just a little lighter bounce in my step.