Evening all,
Hope you're all dealing with your day as well as you'd like...
Well yesterday's exertions(!) meant that I slept until 9.30am - excellent! So got ready, stuffed some envelopes and set off for hospital. Bloods taken by familiar nurse(s) who joked about my crap veins (not true!) - I'd still like to know where veins 'go'? Really. Meanwhile, she's got in first time and it's trickling merrily so Ha! Then a 30 minute wait for Consultant...
I asked him if he had PET scan pictures that I could see (primary teacher = can't understand without the visual aids). So I got to see the before and after shots on a little monitor with not much detail. I wanted to know two things today -
Has it spread? Short answer - "No" How active is it? Report from PET people's radiologist said minimal/residual traces of activity which could be cancerous or some kind of inflammation / reaction by necrotic tissue. I admit that he lost me here a bit because I thought necrotic meant 'dead' so how can it 'react'! anyway minimal is good...
There's still an 11cm mass there which we knew already. We knew that there would be more treatment. So now it's what kind of chemo next - he's thinking IVE (3 cycles) and harvesting some stem cells for the freezer. The PET scan radiologist (doesn't belong to the hospital) was suggesting that we wait another 4-6 weeks, then redo the scan to see if the 'residual' traces have gone but my Doc doesn't want to do that (nor do I - nearly 3 months with nothing being zapped -can't be right). He had already had a quick chat with the head radiologist to get his thoughts ahead of their team meeting tomorrow so he's keen to get on with it. He's going to ring me on Thursday after the meeting. He wants me to go in early next week to have a Hickman line fitted and also see him to go through treatment and sign consent forms etc. I've already had a look at Hickman line info on Cancerbackup site but they don't have IVE regimen listed...question for the forum I think...
So though there's a long way to go yet, I'm really pleased today :)
x
FormerMember
glad you had one, long road ahead... an old irish saying...
may the raod come up to meet you and the wind be at your back.
I'd like to know where the veins go too, mine always seem to be around until the needle comes near and then vanish, can just imagine them nipping off with suitcase packed lol!
Your doc seems to be on the ball, hope you get the info you need for IVE, sorry not come across that one before, I went on to radiotherapy after R-CHOP.
Happy for you with scan results and good luck with rest of treatment.
