I'm trying not to get too excited, but it's hard not to celebrate right now (and I'm not resisting - sitting here by the fire drinking wine!). My husband and I travelled up to Christie's today to hear the results of the CT scan I had last week, at the mid-point of my 6 months of chemo. And the news is very good: I have three marker enlarged lymph nodes: one in my neck, one between the spine and the aorta, and the third is the left common iliac node (in my pelvis). Well, the one in my neck has disappeared completely ('resolved' is how they refer to it in the report), the interaortocaval node has shrunk from 3.1x3.0cm last September to 2.4x1.9cm, and the pelvic node, although it has grown 0.1cm in one direction, has shrunk 0.1cm in the other, so it's considered to be 'stable'. Anyway, there is something like a 10% margin of error in these measurements, as it depends on who's doing the measuring.
I had radiotherapy on the supraclavicular fossa lymph node, and that has clearly worked brilliantly. The chemo is also working. Unfortunately that doesn't mean that I can stop right now, as I'd dearly love to. We have to carry on to the end. There have been moments when I feel I just can't carry on, but right now I've had two weeks off the tablets and feel like the old me. It's easy to forget how horrid the side-effects are, but I'll be remembering soon enough, as I start back tomorrow morning. Oh well, at least I can see a point to it now. I love to read these reports and to see the progress we're making in black and white. Onwards and upwards!
With love to all who read this - may your news be good too.
