Mother's Day and the CT Scan

Sunday was Mother's Day and it was a good one. I was able to visit with my Mom and Michelle's Mom. They are great women and I'm grateful to them. I'm also grateful for my sweet wife. I always knew that she would be a great Mom and I was right. I think she had a great day as well. I ended up buying her an ipad2. She loves it and so do the kids...they may have played with it more than Michelle. For all of the wonderful Mothers out there, I hope you had a wonderful day.

I had a CT scan yesterday. We arrived at the IMC (Intermountain Medical Center) and waited to be checked in. They gave us a pager, it was similar to the ones that you get at restaurants. When it buzzed, we went to the registrars desk and she confirmed my information and then told us to "have a seat". We waited and we noticed that everyone was getting called back before us. I then remembered that the last time I had a scan, I had to drink a bunch of crystal light mixed with iodine (it is terrible). I went back to the registrar and asked her about it and she forgot to give it to me. So I spent the next hour drinking this stuff every 20 minutes. The good news was that I had the ipad to play with while I waited (Michelle went down to the cafeteria).

They finally called me back and I had to change into a gown and pajama pants. They were very warm as they just came out of the dryer. I waited a few more minutes and they called me back. They were excited to know that I had a PICC line. I think they hate poking people almost as much as we hate being poked. They connected to the PICC line, took a picture and then added the contrast and took more pictures.

After they were done, I asked the tech if they could see the pictures. He said "yes, but couldn't let me see them". They had to be sent to the radiology department. I think the real reason he couldn't show me was because there were 4 or 5 people waiting for a CT scan and they needed to move quickly. I was okay with that though, because I knew I would be able to log into IHC's "My Health" and see the reading once radiology finished with it.

I watched all night long to see if they added the scan results. They didn't post them. I woke up this morning and kept checking all morning long. Finally, at 12:30 pm, they posted the scan results. I'm happy to say that the results appear to be good news. I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on TV but even with my limited knowledge in this field, it appears to be good news. The following is a verbatim from the reading:

1. The large splenic lesion is significantly decreased in sizenow measures 4.1 cm in maximal diameter. It had measured 10.5 cmon the prior exam.
2. There is significant improvement in the mesenteric andretroperitoneal adenopathy with mild infiltration in the regionof the adenopathy seen on that prior exam.

Many of you are probably wondering what that means. The tumor in my spleen (which I'm now calling Melvin) has shrunk from approximately 4 inches down to 1 1/2 inches. I don't quite understand the second bullet but I like the first four words..."There is significant improvement". So Melvin is shrinking and I think the lymph nodes are doing really well also. What can I say? How about "Woohoo!!!!"? I've always known that the chemo was working but I'm so glad to see it in writing. I can't wait to speak to my Oncologyst on Thursday. I'm even a little excited for Chemotherapy this Friday. I know that it is doing the job that it is supposed to do and it is more than likely my second to last treatment.

We have been blessed! Thanks for your support everyone!!! You've made it easy to stay positive and handle this challenge/Melvin so well.