Friday 22 May 2009

The Verdict

Back to the Royal Marsden today to find out the results of this weeks PET scan. When the consultant popped his head round the door and said "I just need to pop upstairs and see the radiologist, I can't make head or tail of his comments!', I immediately feared the worst. How difficult could "all clear" be to understand? Clearly its wasn't, so I was left hanging for a few more minutes. When he did arrive he still didn't really choose his words that carefully. "The report said the scan showed there was some activity.." Ok, that's not really what I wanted to hear. "...but the scan results were amplified so much that everywhere showed some activity and the activity was deemed to be no higher than normal tissue, so the radiologist has concluded its a negative scan". That's good news! I know he was only trying to explain himself but he really couldn't have managed to give good news so badly if he tried!

The upshot is that I do have a nodule in my right-lung but the PET scan doesn't show it as active. It could be scar tissue from previous surgery or there is a type of my cancer (differentiated teratoma) that does not show on a PET scan. The plan is to have another scan in 2 months to see whether there is any change in size and if so I'll be under the knife again.

More bloody waiting but such is life on remission. Today's news is the best I could of had so I'm grateful for that. Thanks to all who crossed their fingers (and toes) on my behalf and any inconvenience it may have caused!!

Thursday 7 May 2009

Mixed News..

My latest meeting with Prof. Dearnley at the Royal Marsden was to review my recent CT scan and blood test. When he started with the words "It's mixed news..." I knew there was something not quite right. The blood test showed my AFP tumour marker to be normal, however the CT scan showed a nodule on the bottom edge of my right lung. This is slightly unusual in that each previous re-occurence of my cancer has been marked by an associated increase in my AFP levels - which thus far has shown to be a reliable indicator. There is a chance the nodule could be scar tissue from previous surgery or benign but I've been scheduled in for a PET scan to check. Back to the waiting.......should have crossed my toes as well!