[If you aren’t a daily reader, and you haven’t seen the CT Scan results from earlier in the week, be sure to check them out first!]

There were a few questions from yesterday’s comments (as well as from some emails) about the tumor on my spine. Unfortunately there weren’t many definitive answers on that from the oncologist. It’s entirely possible that it’s gone, she couldn’t see anything in the CT Scan results, but she admitted that she’s not the greatest at interpreting those results. But she did note that the radiologist who looked at the results didn’t mark anything in that location so it might be gone. That would be consistent with the amount of shrinkage seen in the chest tumor.  But remember it wasn’t until the PET Scan that they noticed the involvement of my vertebrae the first time, although after it showed up on the PET Scan they were able to go back to the CT Scan and could then see evidence of it when they knew to look for it. That was then confirmed by an MRI. Still while it doesn’t appear to be there anymore, I got the impression that she wasn’t willing to give it the “all clear” yet without further tests. But until then we’ll go with “no news is good news.”

When we last meet her, she indicated that I was to have the CT Scan before we met with her again (and I did) and that I might have a another PET Scan after that. I asked her about this on Wednesday and she told me that the CT was more than conclusive enough that things were moving in the right direction that there was no need for the PET at this time. The treatment course it working and seems to be working well.

So the plan now if for another CT scan in about two months. At that point its POSSIBLE (and I stress the word possible) that we may start putting together an exit strategy at that time. I almost hate to even talk about it, as I’ve taken great pains to not think about and/or anticipate when we might bet finished with treatment, so take this all for what it’s worth. But, it’s POSSIBLE that we may have a good idea at that point as to when we’ll be finished. From what she described, we get to a point to where we stop seeing signs of disease and then we go through two more cycles (about 2 months) of chemotherapy just to be sure. So we could be looking at April or May here…  Again, don’t start getting your hopes up. I’m not starting to think about or talk about when I’ll be done with any kind of certainty, I’m just passing along the information as I get it.

If I had it my way I’d have been done weeks ago. I bitched about it a little to the oncologist. About how much I hate coming in for chemo. I haven’t had any symptoms of the cancer for months now. So at this point I’m fully aware that its these treatments that is the only thing holding me back right now. The only think keeping me sick. It just sucks starting feeling normal for a few days before I have go back in and start all over again, with each round being worse and worse. ALTHOUGH, I have to admit, after seeing those pictures I was pretty encouraged and ready to hop into that chair again, excited to keep up the progress. At least until they starting putting drug after drug back into me. I just wish I could have sat in that good feeling for a little longer.

Don’t get me wrong, the pictures are really nice to have. I’m kind of obsessing over them actually. Anytime I start to feel sick I’ll just pull up the blog and stare and those comparison photos. They remind me that it’s worth it!