Kevin will get my post title, I always joke that I'm monitoring things and my health feels like I'm constantly in a monitoring, test, wait and watch stage!

 

The day before I left for my trip to Dayton I saw my oncologist for my 4 month follow up. By the way, my cancer center has moved to optional masks, and it's quite a treat to finally see the full face of people I have known since the summer of 2020 and receive hugs! Dr. Reddy said my bloodwork was pretty good. But there is a small lymph node in my stomach they were concerned about. He said he wasn't overly concerned because my GI scope with Dr. George in November was clear and that would catch something before a CT scan. He still wanted to play it safe and have a PET scan done. I'm all for doing that as well! Information is power. He said we'd schedule it for when I got back from my trip. I thought it was funny that his nurse Selena called during Mirage's semifinals performance in Dayton. Of course, I let it go to voicemail. I took the first available PET scan which was at 4 pm. I will avoid fasting all day again. It was basically a 24-hour fast by the time I was done with the scan. It made for a very SLOW workday! After getting the IV glucose injection you wait an hour and then spend about 20 minutes in the machine doing the actual scan. As I was inching along slowly in the tube I kept thinking this is not the ideal time for this. I know, is cancer recurrence ever an ideal time? But, Connor is graduating from college, Meghan is getting ready to transfer to UNT, Nolan will be a senior next year and Kevin just accepted a new job. I have things I want to do and see. I have things I don't even know I will want to do and see in the future. So I prayed that the scan would be clear and nothing would light up!  I woke up a week later and started thinking about my day and then bam, I remembered it was RESULTS day. That will wake you up and get you going real fast! I saw Shandy and she said let's get right to it. There are a few things that will light up on a PET scan - infection, inflammation and cancer. Two small lymph nodes minimally lit up. She said she doesn't think it's cancer. She said cancer usually lights up brighter but they are going to do a CT scan in two months to keep a close eye on it. I ran into Dr. Reddy in the hallway and he reassured me as well. He said these are really small and they are watching me closely.  I reminded myself that my last PET scan in 2021 was a similar result so I'm hopeful and calm. And there is the end to the bottom of this roller coaster dip! Until the next incline up again in two months, I'll keep on monitoring and living my best life!  Enjoy your summer, it's heating up quickly here in Texas!