Medical Update

So today I went up to UCSF to get the last of the PET scans (Positron Emission Tomography, (in case you wondered)) of the series. Since July, I had been going in every two months to take these scans to monitor my progress in being "free of cancer". These particular scans take images of the entire body from scull to thigh. PET scans are particularly effective in identifying whether cancer is present or not, whether it has spread and/or if the person is responding to treatment. Back in April, the radiologists first detected a suspicious spot on my liver and they were concerned that it could be a metastasis of the colon cancer that I had removed two months prior. Therefore, I needed to make sure that we monitored this really closely and frequently. Hence the series of scans.

Well so far, so good. Each scan that I have taken has come back reporting, 'steady and unchanged'. This means that the spot (s) that are showing up in my body are not behaving like cancer. They hadn't grown or spread! Therefore, they are most-likely not cancer! And I say most-likely, only because I'm am aware of how randomly cancer likes to rear it's ugly head, and
at that point in time, it was gonna take a few more scans to convince me ;)

It was to my surprise to get the results back today, the same day, from the radiologist. Usually it takes a few days. A few looong days. But not this time, and that was cool! Tom, who is the nurse practitioner for my Oncologist, emailed me the good news, that once again, the report reads that things look 'steady and unchanged' ! OH THANK YOU GOD!...

So now that the final scan of this series is done, and everything looks good, then I will sit down and discuss with my Oncologist, what the plan should be from here. I will still need to monitor with future scans of course, but they just wont need to be as frequent. Roughly every six months is what I hear is common. Hopefully I will meet with my doctor within this month, but if not than in December.

Maybe even in time for Christmas!