Progress

Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.

Pablo Picasso


Effort and perseverance are paying off it would seem. Yesterday my sister, Yvonne, and I headed off to Liverpool hospital for me to have a PET scan. This was the first one in six months. It is a way to look into the body for metastatic tumours, or any tumours really. For me this is a pretty important check up. The last PET scan was at the end of October 2009. The report by the radiologists here was not clear cut but the second opinion in Germany indicated that I was free of any tumours big enough to see with this scan. That was an amazing result as I had started with 15 tumours in various parts of my body - liver, bones, breasts and lymph nodes. Although my treatment has continued I have not had any chemotherapy since December 2009. There is really no other way for me to know if I was continuing to be free of tumours than to do another PET scan.

Basically it requires fasting for 6 hours before the scan to reduce glucose levels in the body. An injection is then given of radioactively charged glucose. Tumours love glucose so the theory is that they will preferentially take up the radioactive glucose and the scan can then 'see' the flare ups where the tumours are. It requires an hour of lying still immediately after the injection and then about 30minutes in the scanning machine lying perfectly still. Very good opportunity for meditation. The hospital also runs a concurrent CT scan.

After the scan was completed we waited about 3/4 of an hour to get some pictures and a cd of the results and the report of findings would be faxed to the referring doctor later in the afternoon. Being Friday I was anxious to ensure this would happen and my doctor would let me know the result so I would not be waiting till Monday for a result. I had already had two nights of nightmares prior to the test day so I was obviously pretty anxious. I rang the doctor and left a message asking that I be contacted that afternoon. We headed home. I had a look at the pictures that were in the envelope after tearing through the sticker with the message "Please deliver UNOPENED to your referring doctor at your next appointment". I don't think so. Couldn't read the pictures, I am only good at reading X-rays, although I am getting better at CT and PET scans. When I got home I managed to get the cd to work and had a good look at the scans in more detail from tip of my head to almost my toes. Couldn't see anything that looked like tumours either on the PET scan or the CT scan but I could not rely on this due to my lack of expertise in this area. Fortunately Dr Fluhrer rang soon after and told me the report said there was improvement compared to the scan in October and there was no sign of disease. Hoooray!
Although there may be very small tumours that are not big enough to show up on the scan this is really fantastic news. Two clear scans over 6 months! I feel very elated and more optimistic about the future. It would seem that the treatments are working, I am very grateful.

Meantime I have also had some blood sent over to Greece to look at the cancer cells in my blood and see what state they are in. Hopefully there will be improvement there as well. In any case the results of that will determine the treatment plan to come. My doctor in Germany will develop a plan for me to follow based on those results. I am booked to go to Germany in July for treatment but am hoping I may not need to go over there. Not going to get my hopes up too much though as I may need to go over at least for a vaccine (have had three already - they are made up of my tumour tissue harvested when I had my double mastectomy). I should get some results in about 10 days and then receive a plan soon after that.

My current treatment plan is still in place and keeping me busy. Twice a week 5 hour intravenous infusions, 2 intramuscular injections a week, two subcutaneous injections a week, 77 tablets a day, and two concoctions a day. Meditation, Tai Chi, exercise, drawing classes and psychotherapy once a fortnight are also part of the holistic approach. It certainly seems to be all coming together to give a good outcome.

The other part of my plan is to have some fun, socialise and generally enjoy myself. Want to get fit enough to start bush walking again. That is my shorter term goal that I am looking forward to fulfilling and enjoying the process of reaching that.

Sometimes I think I am too goal oriented and I wonder if the caterpillar has a plan to become a chrysalis and then a butterfly or does it just have faith and trust that it will happen? No, it doesn't even do that, it just lives in the moment and it happens anyway. Unless it becomes bird food of course. Ooops. Life is a conundrum.

Surviving and thriving

Linda