C/T results, check-up, and just too hot!

Had my follow up appointment with my Medical Oncologist yesterday morning (July,6/12) and over all things went well. When she entered the examining room she had my C/T results in hand and went over them with me.

Image only, NOT my scan.

It appears that things have progressed a bit since the last C/T, but over all the nodes are still relatively small. Seems more of them are now showing up in the C/T which is matching up with what my PET scan back in Feb,2010 showed. The four nodes in the abdomen are now visible, the two nodes in the mediastinum area are still the largest of them.

She has noted something "new" that we will be keeping an eye on and that is there a a few "spots" showing up in my lungs that were not there on the last scan. I will be doing a chest x-ray in October before my next visit with her to re-evaluate at that time.

I showed her the two "new" nodes that have come to the surface and are now palpable. One is just below my right earlobe in the temple area, this one is actually quite sore to the touch as well. The other is also on the right side and in the upper right chest area just by the collar bone. This one seems to have just "popped" up in the past week.

Over all she thinks things are "progressing" as the should, and along with the tiredness all the time and weight loss, there is a feeling this may or may not be the beginning of something bigger going on. At this time she doesn't feel that it is, and thus the follow up with chest x-ray to check on the lung "spots" and blood work up, just to make sure nothing "more" is going on.

I told her I had mixed feelings about what was going to be discussed at this visit and even mentioned that if it were time to start discussions about treatment, I would put it off for a couple months as I did not feel I wanted to make those decisions at this time of year and would like to enjoy the rest of the summer before doing so. Well, I now know these decisions are not needing to be made at this time, which was a relief.

So, time to get back to summer and hope it cools off soon so we can get out more to some of the local events. There are a lot of events around the anniversary of the War of 1812 all over the area, and Brenda being a member of the Provincial Marines and their 1812 re-enactment group, she too would like to take part in more events. The temps being in the high 90's and into the 100's some days, it's just too hot.

I also have some other issues going on right now with the employer / union situation and will be focused on that for now. So will update as things move along and keep you all abreast of things medically and otherwise, take care and enjoy life!