my latest cat scan - good news bad news

[bradyr]

I just got back from the doctor (I met with both the radiation oncologist and the chemo oncologist) about my latest cat scan. it's good news bad news.

the bad news is that they had never scaned the entire lungs - this was the first time and now they have picked up a tumor in my lungs. it's not too large and they assume it's been there all along, not a new growth.

they also looked again at the shadow in my spleen and it shows to be smaller, which likely means that it is a tumor as a non-maligant cyst would more likely have stayed the same size and not gotten smaller.

so the bad news is two more organs have mets. now it's my liver, spleen, lungs and bones.

the good news is that the tumors we did know about - in my liver appear to have gotten smaller - although the radiolgist providing the ct scan analysis summary didn't provide an exact size of the reduction like they did last time.

They look smaller to me - but it's only 25% or so smaller.

we don't know if the tumors are active or not - I asked about a pet scan to confirm that, but the chemo oncologist didn't think that was that useful, since we have no other pet scan's to compair it too - and it's likely to her that the tumors do contain some living cancer tissue, so they won't show as totaly dark.

I asked the radiation oncologist about RFA and SIRT - he doesn't think RFA is a good idea, because in addition to the larger tumors I have 4 or 5 very small tumors and RFA wouldn't work as well on the smaller ones. He felt the same about cyberknife radiation. As far as SIRT, he thought that could be an option, but he wasn't sure we needed to move rapidly to that.

the chemo oncologist wants to take a break in the chemo and apparently watch things for the next 3 months with CEA and then another round of imaging to see how fast this is growing. then based upon that info decide on a course of action.

my wife was a little upset. as prepared as we are that I may only have a few more years, I think in her heart, she was expecting some really good news today. I pretty much expected this to be inconclusive at best.

in addition, I think the tumor in the lung scared her. Her fathre died of lung cancer about 20 years ago and it wasn't pleasent. The chemo oncologist tried to explain that this isn't lung cancer and at this point it's not a big deal. and since the spleen isn't a critical organ, the mets there aren't life threating either. but I think she's just getting tired of the fight. I don't know what to tell her to make her feel better. Likely nothing, I just have to be strong and not let her see my fears and doubts about doing nothing for 3 months.

So, the fight goes on. everyone tells me I look healther than before. Of course I've lost a lot of hair and I don't feel I have much energy, but if folks think I look better, maybe it's true.

so, we're doing ok. it's never fun getting news that isn't totally positive, but that's the fight we're all in. we just have to live each day at a time and make the most of the time we have, be it 6 months or 60 months . I have a lot of people praying for me and there are a lot of people worse off than me, so I am still lucky.

next week, I'll meet with the chemo oncologist again (before my last chemo) and I'm sure we'll talk some more. I let you know what comes of that.

[rthornton]

the bad news is that they had never scaned the entire lungs - this was the first time and now they have picked up a tumor in my lungs. it's not too large and they assume it's been there all along, not a new growth.

When I was first diagnosed, there was a lesion in my left lung that did not show up on a PET scan, but was on a CT scan. My doctor decided to watch it ... a wait and see approach, to see if it changed any over time. That was in May '05, and finally this past summer it started to grow just a little. It still did not show up on a PET scan, but it changed size, so we biopsied it. The biopsy results were positive, so we scheduled a thorascopy. The procedure was really easy. I had the procedure on a Thursday, was home by Saturday, and walking the dog by Sunday. I don't know if your doctors would want to operate on one organ when others are involved, but if you do surgically address the lung met then, I can tell you, the thorascopy makes for an easy recovery.

Best wishes!

Rodney

[Lifes2short]

Bradyr,
I'm in a very similar situation. I have mets to the bone, liver, some lymph nodes and now maybe a small node in my lung. It's pretty overwhelming - impossible to believe that it's beatable when it's showing up in so many places. Though I still have hope for a spontaneous remission.

My surgeon friend talks about my disease as being "manageable". He compared it to diabetes. He said we're not going to wipe out the cancer but we can make it something I can live with (easy for him to say, he's never done chemo). I agree with him to some extent. I believe we can use chemo to control the cancer for years to come. I guess at some point I'll either get too tired of chemo or the cancer will pop up in a more life threatening location.

For now I just have to take it one day at a time. I enjoy the good days, dread the chemo days. I try to keep life as normal as possible for the kids. It's certainly not an ideal situation, but it sure beats the alternative.

[Kimberly J]

Bradyr

You are not alone!

Off treatment since May 8/07 - I had a CT scan June 19/07, my liver mets reported as similar in size and number to prior scan of March/07. Had PET Scan June 26/07 - report of liver mets but no detailed description and possible lesion on my admonial wall which they think was there all the time. My CEA level was suppose to be taken, however, it was not done.

I had my CEA done on July 30/07 and - saw my oncologist this week - CEA has risen. Had another CT Scan done today. Will be meeting with my oncologist next week for results and determine if I need to resume chemo. It will depend on whether or not if they grown and if so by how much.

Kimberly J

[Carolyn JB]

Bradyr,

I hate scan times - I have one coming up on Monday and am terrified! Even when we try to prepare ourselves for bad news its hard to hear!
I wish all scans could be good news

Carolyn