How I am feeling post-pet scan and pre treatment #6

Obviously the #'s for this week are a little skewed due to the good Scan results. I am implementing a new therapy for my "innards" care of MJ over at My Life With Hodge. I am also going to work on my "keep my mouth from getting nuts" routine, by implementing some advice from Kelly at Chemopalooza. I'll let you know if there is any change. If those chill out, I will be 9.5's across the board BABY! For those who want to keep score from home, I am also going to post a graph of my White Blood Count from treatment one on out. TMI, I know.

Pet pics

Okey dokey. So I have the CD with the Scan results and the radiologist's notes. Here is what he wrote in short:

He summarized my July 13th Scan and then stated: None of that abnormal activity is apparent on today's examination. The CT portion shows some bulky nodes still, but these are now metabolically inactive (not cancerous).

He then went on to mention some weird anatomical stuff he found (anomalous vein descending the aorta) before mentioning that there was a spot just to the right of my belly button that lit up. It had no correlating enlarged node or organ with it on the CT Scan and it is not consistent with the regression of Hodgkin's. They (the radiologist and my oncologist) had no explanation, but would like to see what it looks like on the post-treatment scan in Feb. I am cool with that. I highlighted it in the pic.

Blue skies. So the news from Dr. Houck on the PET Scan was great. There is no "light up" in the chest any longer. A CT Scan done at the same time does show two nodes still enlarged. Dr. Houck expects this to continue to shrink down in time as it heals. There may also be scar tissue that will show up on all CT Scans for me from here on out. We will know that it is scar tissue and not tumor because it will not be cancerous, growing or metastasizing (future pet and ct scans).

I will try to get some pics up of the scan when I get the CD. There was a small light up on the pelvis, not around any known anatomical tissue. They believe this is an anomaly and will just look at the post-treatment scan to confirm this. It is not in a place that Hodgkin's would metastasize to and wasn't on the initial scan, but thought I would note it for everyone.

More info to come...

What's in the scan Stan?

PET

Got my Pet Scan today. Obviously, we won't get the results for a couple of days, I will post them and hopefully get a copy of the deal by the end of the week. Fingers crossed that things look good. For whatever reason, the nausea for the last few treatments has been getting worse. I have not actually thrown up yet, but it sure does feel like I will. I am just in a general malaise of nausea, hot mouth and tiredness. I am trying to mix up what I am doing, eating, drinking, etc. In the meantime, I feel like a log who doesn't want to do much. Not a good place to be in when you've got some kids to tend to. Jess and the rest of the family are doing a great job, I just feel crummy and useless at times.

Alright, update to come upon results.

Peace.

If you're nice, I may let you pet my port.....

Live blogging for treatment #5. Today was a Dr's visit prior to treatment, so we are starting later. I haven't done the PET scan yet, so no results to chat with him about.

10:39am ET: Giving me the Aloxi for nausea with a Decadron kicker on the back side. The Dec is fattening me up. I was 221 when I checked in 2 months ago, and now I am a svelte 234. If we were on Sesame Street I would be brought to you by the letter O. No roid rage tho, so I guess I have that going for me.


19:34pm ET: UPDATED Well so much for live blogging. Schlabers ended up picking up one of the kids from preschool and while she was gone I slept. Despite the meeting with the Dr today, the whole deal went pretty fast, which is mad appreciated.

Sorry for the lame no-posts. They are trying to get the PET scan scheduled ASAP, so the results of that should be next.

Going into Treatment #5 and the Pet Scan

Treatment #5 is tomorrow and I did not get my PET scan done before it. No biggie, I was on vacation and it didn't work for my schedule, but I will plan to do it sometime after #5. I have updated the "how I feel" chart. Steady at an 8. Again, it's taking me about 5-7 days to shake all the ill effects of the treatment, but they aren't that bad. Fire mouth and stomach issues could be much worse.

The hair caper

So the iggy on my hair is that I have none on my upper lip or below my lower lip. I used to be able to grow a nice beard and goat-tee, not unlike Mr. It above. Not so much now. I also estimate that I have lost about 20-30% of the hair up on my dome. It was sorta thinning before, but now that it is shaved, when it grows back, i can see some major spots and thinning. Same with the rest of my beard. Also, I am not growing those onesy twosey Andy Rooney's along the eye brows. My slight uni-brow too, has ceased and desisted, so it's not all sour grapes. Any other part of my body where clothing rubs up against it (outer leg, upper quad, etc) is also bald or uber-thin.

I am fine with this, but I definitely feel bad for the ladies out there that have to go through this. I could understand how tough this would be for them.

The hair deal is obviously always there (along with the intestinal issues). From here on out, just assume that I am having issues with both (the milk of mag is the bomb, but a little caustic :)

Keep in mind, the blog is for friends and family, but it's main intent is still to document "all the little things" that I am going through so that others can gauge what they can expect and when. Atleast what degree a 31 year old dude, went through.