New face.

Today I received an email from Dr. Sarriera's office.  An email I was afraid to open.  An email that I was afraid to read.  An email I started because I will not see Dr. Sarriera until Dec 20th.  An email from Ketty with a response from Abby.   And that email had some wonderful news for Bill and I.  And I was able to read it.  And I was able to put some fear away.  Some; not all.

My Pet scan was done on 11/30.  Got there at 11 for my 1 o'clock appointment.  Had to get lines put in my port at 2ACC (second floor).  Then had to go to registration on the 1st floor of the Charles Louis Pavilion.  From there to Pet scan waiting area.  Sat there a bit.  Finally close to 12, Steve (didn't have a nice bedside manner) came for me.  Bill left then as he couldn't go back because of me being injected with a dye.  This dye, FDG, a simple sugar (like glucose), was injected into my bloodstream via my port.  It contains a small amount of radioactive material too.  It accumulates in my body and
gives off energy in the form of "gamma" rays.  It can detect cancerous tissues and cells in the body that can not always be found through a CT scan or a MRI. After the injection, I had to sit in a room for an incubation period of 1 hour.   About 1/2 hour in, I popped my Ativan.  Claustrophobic you know.  Mary can relate with this.

About 10 minutes before Steve came in to get me, I fell asleep.  He woke me and off we went to the dreaded room with the dreaded machine.  But I was walking on clouds by then.  Told me lay on the table.  Covered me up.  Put a strap to help hold my arms on the table.  Then put a piece of tape, I think it was duct tape (HA) across my forehead to table.  It was lose because I checked.  My Ativan had pretty much kicked in all the way by then because I normally would have ripped it off and then slapped it on Steve.  He told me that it would be about 35 to 40 minutes for the head to mid thigh test.  He started the process and my head went in the machine and I don't remember anything until he was asking me to flip around so he could do from my feet to the mid thigh that way.  Which I flipped and don't remember any thing of that.  Just remember him saying we were done.  Helped me off the table and out to Bill.  Done for the rest of the day.  I like the way Ativan works for my CT scans, MRI's, Pet scans but don't like the way I feel for the day of and then next day.

So all this about the Pet scan was because this dreaded email I wanted was the test results of that scan.  Did not want to wait for my appointment one the 20th.  The last scan was in June because I found another lump on my head before radiation was done.  I knew it was Myeloma just from the feel of it.  Dr. Sarriera felt the same.  That Pet scan showed the active Myeloma.  The relapse so quickly after my transplant.  Aggressive, active Myeloma.  Treatments set in to action immediately.  Low dose Revlimid, no.  Polamalist, not!  Dex, Kyprolis and Cytoxin, yes.  Am now on Cycle 4, week 3, day 2 Wednesday.

Finally, right?  Lol.  The email please!  My results came back saying "no focal hyper metabolic to suggest malignancy". And that means, negative findings throughout my body.  There are still the multiple lytic lesions (spots where the bone tissue has been destroyed) throughout my skull.  Abby said to tell me the Pet scan was NEGATIVE.   Good news, great news, happy news once again.

As to why I said I was able to put away some of my fears.  Well, there has been several times in the last year and 3 or 4 months since I was diagnosed that we have had happy news only to have it shot down in a few days with BUT now we see this.  So it's hard for me to put on a full happy face when we get good news.  I am sure it's hard to understand and why not  just go with what you have now.  The slapping us, especially me, down is very hard.  So yes, I am happy, excited about the Pet scan but can't go all the way there because of the NOW this.  Sorry, my friends.

I had my Multiple Myeloma labs drawn today.  These will be back in a few days.  I will watch on my portal. Need to see the light chain ratio.  This was the area Dr. Sarriera was concerned about last time.   Another I need to see but afraid to look at the results.  Bill and I pretty much know how to read these reports.  Especially the labs.

It is now 12:11 and all my 30 pills have been taken.  I am not one bit tired as you can tell by my rattling on and on.  My blog, my rattle.  lol  Steroid, Tuesday late night.

Tomorrow, Wednesday December the 6th, is the last day of Cycle 4. Then nothing but my Dex until I go back to start Cycle 5 on December 19th.  And I will have a new face in the treatment room with me.  Excited about that.  Sandy and Denny are down for a week and Sandy is going to join me at the Cancer Center and in my treatment room.  Although Bill will be driving us because there is no way I can drive downtown Orlando with these drugs in me or would I want Sandy to drive it.  Too much traffic, to many Florida drivers.

Quote:

With cancer you learn how fragile life is and at any given time, you could lose it.  So keep your head up, God gives his hardest battles to his strongest!