Well, let me put on my ‘CT Tech of 27 years’ hat and tell you….a CT takes images through your body like slices in a loaf of bread. Each slice is a certain thickness and then instead of just stacking those slices up on top of one another, there is a small overlap so no space is missed. But….that does not account for things like breathing motion-which you can mostly control by holding your breath when the tech asks you to, and the simple fact that CT does not pick up activity, but rather the lesion itself, and it has to be a certain size to do so. Whereas the PET picks up the metabolic activity of the cancer. In layman’s terms-they are there, they are active, but they are small.
Even the liver ones.
Speaking of…..I am getting an MRI of my liver next week at the recommendation of one of the Radiologists at Tumor Board-thanks Dr. Neprud! Kept me from having to ask for it. It will help us see those little boogers better and serve as a baseline for the future. So, my NKCH MRI peeps-I’ll be at the Pav on Wednesday 6/7 at 2pm. I’ll pop a “I hate MRIs and really tight spaces and am weirdly claustrophobic” pill prior to arrival but if you’ll have my eye cover and ‘concert-loud’ country music ready to go, I might just bring some treats…..
I got my Elacestrant last weekend and took my first pill on Saturday night. And I’m fine! No really, just a little nausea for the first couple days, and now nothing. I’m definitely happy for nothing so far! And last week I had blood drawn and got an Xgeva shot-to help with the bone health and hopefully the bone pain. Speaking of bone pain…we are going to hold off on any radiation or anything else related to that for now. Dr. Satelli thinks that as the Orserdu starts working and gets in my system that the pain will subside because it’s stopping the progression of the bone mets. Keep your fingers crossed that works. Bone pain is not like any other pain I’ve ever had, and it’s hard to describe. Sometimes it’s achy, sometimes it’s sharp. Mostly it’s just uncomfortable. The hardest thing is finding a sleeping position that enables me to make it through the night. I’ve got a pretty good concoction of pain meds that work well enough to get me 6 hours of decent sleep. And if I get a good nights sleep then my day is good. If not, well, you can imagine…
So right now that’s where we stand on the treatment horizon and I’m good with our plan. I go see Dr. Satelli June 29th and I’ll find out then if we will be scheduling a PET or how we proceed to monitor how the new regimen is working.
In the meantime I’ve got life to live! One of those things was celebrating the marriage of a sweet girl and one of Hailey’s dear friends; Jocelyn and Joey. Their ceremony was beautiful and we were honored to be a part of it-as guests and being asked to make their guestbook. I made a circle with their name on it for their guests to sign, and Hailey asked me to make her a new classroom sign for the former Ms. Hasenohr with her new married name Mrs. Wilcox -both turned out pretty good if I do say so myself
We didn’t close down the reception because we had to get up and head to Oklahoma the next day for my Uncle Ron’s Memorial Service and celebration of life.
The service was lovely and probably one of the ‘best’ I’ve been to as far as memorial services go. It was clear the pastor and band members knew my Uncle. They spoke, played and sang from their hearts. Even though it was obvious they were hurting from his absence as much as we were, they knew he wanted us to celebrate the life he lived and the joy his homecoming in Heaven brought him. I know he was greeted with open arms by his savior and then reunited with his Mom and Dad-Flora and Herb, his sister Linda, his brother Tom and his niece Monique-oh, what a party that must have been!
