Near Remission????

I went to the Intermountain Medical Center on Tuesday to have my blood drawn for labs. On Wednesday, I went in for my PET scan. Michelle and I got up early (not early enough). I found out late that we were supposed to be there 30 minutes prior to our appointment. We rushed to the hospital and they quickly called me back. A PET scan is similar to a CT scan but takes a lot more time. They had me drink two cups of the Crystal Light mixed with iodine. The tech then put an IV in me to inject the radioactive sugar into my system. I had to then wait for 45 minutes while the radioactive sugar spread through my organs. After that long wait, I finally went into the room for the scan. I laid down on the machine and the tech told me I couldn't move for 30 minutes (this is harder than you think). The machine quickly scanned me and then moved back and started to scan me in 5 or 6 sections (each about 5 minutes). It was so hard to be still. My arms fell asleep as they were positioned above my head, I got a cramp in my leg. Not a fun experience. It eventually ended and then Michelle went to the Women's Center for a mammogram. We aren't taking any chances with our health. After she was done, we went home.

At home, I was looking online and found my results. As I mentioned on facebook, most of it looked good to my untrained comprehension but there was one thing that bothered me. The last couple of sentences said:

"Hypermetabolic is noted along the mesenteric root where adenopathy persists. This is concerning for continued involvement of lymphoma."

I'm not a doctor but I knew what that meant. It ruined my night. I'm really grateful for the advent of technology to allow us the ability to check these things online but in some ways it might be better to not know. I had to impatiently wait until today to understand exactly where we are at.

We went to see Dr. Legant today. We brought a present for her. It was an oriental fan, it was an inside joke about other careers that she could have. She loved it. I then admitted to her that I already looked at the results and that they were concerning. She went through the exam first and then we began discussing the results. It all looks pretty good, my spleen is back to normal and the majority of the lymph nodes are back to normal. The problem is that I had two lymph nodes that still light up with hypermetabolic activity. Those two lymph nodes are slightly larger than normal (1.5 cm vs. 1.0 cm). They also have a SUV (Standard uptake value of 5.6 and 4.3). That number was up in the 10 - 12 range originally so it looks better but it is concerning that it is still higher than normal.

So where does that leave us? She is recommending that we watch and wait at this point. I will go back in for an appointment on July 28th. We are planning on a CT scan in two months to see if the lymph nodes have increased/decreased in size. If we see any activity, we will be looking at harvesting stem cells and then going through a quick but powerful chemo regimen. Once they kill off my immune system, they will then transplant my own stem cells to build back my immune system. This is a very scary procedure. My good friend has gone through it and he did fine but it is not without risks.

I really hope we don't have to go through that, but I'm willing to do whatever it takes. I'm not done fighting. We can use all the prayers that we can get. I'm very hopeful that those two lymph nodes will continue to shrink and we will be declared in remission. I hope this doesn't sound like a negative post. I allowed myself to be upset on Wednesday and I've been good ever since. Even today, when we met with Dr. Legant. I'm ready for whatever is thrown at us. I think Michelle is too. She is awesome!