Oopsie

I took piano lessons for many years as a child and went through 3 or 4 different teachers. The second teacher I had was an older woman who my brother used to hide from (or pretend he was asleep) when she arrived for lesson time. Perhaps she was a classically trained piano player, or even just a wonderfully skilled musician. I don't know, but I do know she wasn't really a kid person. Each time my fingers made a misstep on the keys, I automatically yelped, "Oopsie!" And while I am fairly good at reading music and plunking out a tune, once she turned the metronome on and sat back to watch and listen (to see how well I had (or had not) practiced), I inevitably misstepped again and again. "Oopsie! Oopsie!" Man, it pissed her off.

Today was complementary medicine day: morning acupuncture and afternoon massage. I was updating my acupuncturist on the past few weeks when I realized that of the past few blog posts, I had kinda forgotten to mention something big.

Oopsie.

We got some really good news when visiting the doctor's office on Day 8. The PET Scan results were printed out for us to see (and keep and frame) how major a change had been detected after the first two rounds of chemo.

From the report, "IMPRESSION: SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION IN EXTENT AND INTENSITY OF HYPERMETABOLIC ACTIVITY IN LARGE ANTERIOR MEDIASTINAL LYMPHOMA."

Although Dr. Henry had explained about the slight reduction in size of the tumor (as evidenced by the CAT scan), he had skimmed over the really good stuff from the PET scan results. Even the nurses were impressed that we were making such bigtime progress, after only 2 rounds of chemo (only!?). Basically what this all means is that despite the tumor still being rather large and present, the cancerous activity within it has decreased.

The white m&m's are winning the war! It has been reassuring - especially with all of the fun new additions to the side effect family - to remember that all of the heavy drugs are doing their jobs and working. And even though I know there will be plenty of "scanxiety" in the long term future, since this will be following me around for years to come, part of me is looking forward to more good scans in the nearer future, probably to be completed after the next round or two of chemo.

Out with you, cancer, you've had your day, and now you can be on your way. Don't let the door hit ya.

xxoo