A "relatively" good scan

Those were Dr. Keohan's words when she began her report, and I immediately thought, "Oh no." According to the radiologist, there is a new 3 x 4 mm nodule in my upper right lung and the two existing nodules (in the middle and lower portions of the same lung) have grown by 1 mm in each direction. I don't know what happened to the "ill-defined 2-3 mm nodular density" reported in the upper right lobe last time, and since I didn't have a copy of the report with me, I couldn't go into it in further detail. It's possible the "new" nodule is an inflamation, but the radiologist could not rule out metastases because of my history. Since the largest is too small to even biopsy (slightly larger than 1/8"), we will wait another three months and scan again. At that point, I will attempt to find out whether the "new" one is actually the prior one.

The good news is my liver cysts (if that's what they are) are stable, and nothing else showed up on the scan in my chest, abdomen or pelvis. So I suppose "relatively" good was the correct term. I continue to officially be NED. Yay!

When I reported all this to my mom, she wanted to know what the doctor was going to do. I explained to her that because the nodules are so small, there is nothing we can do but wait. As a mom, she wants the doctor to go after whatever it is and get rid of it immediately, much as I thought using chemo as a preventative step might be a good idea after my surgery. Since this can be a murky area, I thought I would explain the rationale here.

At this time, there is no proven chemotherapy regimen for LMS, and everyone being treated with chemo is essentially or literally participating in a clinical trial. If one is NED or has nodules as I do that are impossible to define, the doctor would be putting poison in my system in the hope that it might eliminate something that we can't see, shrink or destroy something that may not be cancer, or try to prevent metastases. Since some chemo agents have a lifetime limit, she would be taking a chance that should I need those agents in the future against proven metastases, my dosage would be limited. So, I've put my trust in her to present me with the facts and her recommendations, and we go from there. At this point, that means scan every three months.

I would have posted this report sooner, but this past weekend was so jam-packed that I never went near my computer, and this morning I was having problems getting onto this site. (One side note: do not install Internet Explorer 7 if you can avoid it. I had so many problems that I uninstalled it and went back to IE6, but I'm still dealing with a few leftover bugs.) I imagine the rest of you were busy as well, so perhaps you didn't have time to check this weekend and my explanation was unnecessary. LOL

As the clock ticks down to Christmas and New Year's Eve, I send you all my very best wishes for a happy and healthy 2007. As always, I very much appreciate your support, prayers, positive thoughts, and humor. I look forward to posting to this blog for many years to come. Perhaps some of you will still be interested in reading it. :)