An hour later, a little knock on the door and it's off to the scanner. I don't have to use the mask any more as they are just looking for cancer this time and not using the imaging for other purposes. There are a couple of breathing instructions, "Breathe in. Hold it." Stuff like that. No biggie. Since RA is right next door to the cancer center, I ran next door and said hi to Deb and T. It was really good to see them. They thought I was looking pretty good, especially my neck. That reminds me of something I should have put in the "Odds and Ends" post....
Sometime between the second and third chemo, I had been at work and shortly after drinking my lunch had gotten sick. I cleaned up a bit and then went and sat in my truck for about 20 minutes. When I returned to the area I was working in I discovered that someone had stolen approximately $1,000 worth of my tools. The worst part of this disaster was that one of the things in my stolen bag was an $800 Fluke meter of my bosses which I had to replace. Next thing you know it is 3:00pm and time to head to Las Colinas for radiation. When I pulled up in the parking lot I just broke down and cried. Several minutes later I gathered myself and pasted a smile on my face and went inside. One by one everyone I passed told me how good I looked. If one person had said it, I would have said they were just being nice. Two might be a coincidence. But it was everyone! This was crazy! The only difference I could tell was that I was smiling. I hadn't thought much about it but I can almost guarantee that no one in that office had seen me smile in a long time. I made it a point to smile every day after that.
A week passes and it's time to go back to the cancer center for them to read my PET results. Dr. K read the results and it was not at all what I expected. "The tumor is 95% gone and all but one of the lymph nodes responded perfectly." What the hell is this 95% crap? I know she saw my shoulders slump and she quickly added that I was actually a little ahead of schedule. Even this long since my last treatment the radiation was still doing it's thing. I don't know where I got the idea that I would get a 100% clean bill of health at this reading but it was most certainly my expectation and I was bummed. Not only that, the one lymph node concerned them.
The lymph node decision went back to my ENT, Dr. G. He told me he wanted the radiologist that read the scan to re-read it with him so they were looking at the same thing. Shortly after that meeting I received a call from his office setting up the surgery to remove the remaining node. The surgery would be at Baylor Grapevine (the same place I had my tongue biopsy). If it is possible to love a hospital, I love Baylor Grapevine. Their out-patient setup is amazing. Even in the operating suite it took them six sticks to get an IV going. A little "happy juice" and I could have cared less.
The surgery was no big deal at all. For whatever reason, I respond really well to the anesthesia. It knocks me out when it is supposed to and when it's time to wake up and leave, I can wake up and leave. During admissions, one of the questions they ask is if you have passed out recently. I thought about it and then decided to tell the truth, "Yes, I have". I got to wear a bracelet that I actually left on for several weeks afterward. The primary meaning is obvious but I kept it on as a spiritual reminder that even though I was on a high right now, I had best be on my guard!
A week later, I went to Dr. G's office for a routine post-surgery follow up. He walked in and was as happy and animated as I had ever seen him. "The pathology came back on the lymph node and it was radiation damage. That is very good news." What else could it have been? I had never even considered the fact that had it been cancer, I would have been in very deep doo-doo. I never asked the question and never even considered the possibility that it could have been very bad news. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.
Next up, another PET in 3 months.
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