Results

Hi all,

We have a few minutes of down time today so I want to get you all caught up.  Today Sarah and I headed off to Palo Alto, the home of Stanford University, to get the final test before Chemo starts on Tuesday.  This one is called a PET scan, and is very similar to the CT scan.  The main differences are that this one scans the entire body for cancer, and that it requires the injection of a radioactive sugar solution into the bloodstream.  Yeah, I know.   

It turned out to be pretty mellow compared to some of the other poking and prodding.  The funny thing is, no matter what the results of this scan, the treatment will be the same.  This brings me to the point of today's post: results.  We seem to be at the mercy of the telephone, always waiting for the next shoe to drop.  So far there have been enough shoes dropped on us to comfortably outfit a centipede.  

First it was the CT scan, which lead to a second CT scan.  Results: growth is consistent with Lymphoma, and several more were seen in the chest.   Next it was the Fine Needle Aspiration, which lead to surgery.  Results: definite lymphoma.  There were a slew of other tests with results like sediment levels too high, lymph nodes are too bulky, and the list goes on and on.  

This trend has been the overarching theme of the last couple of weeks, until today.  After my radioactive wife and I returned from Palo Alto, we settled in to get her some rest and catch up on a little bit of Lost.  A couple of minutes in we were interrupted by a phone call which we had been dreading.  It was the results of Sarah's bone marrow biopsy, which would determine whether her Hodgkin's is stage 4.  Again, this doesn't affect the treatment in any way, but it is a pretty heavy blow to the psyche.  In an unexpected and highly welcome turn of events, our track record of bad news was broken.  The bone marrow is clean!  Sarah lit up as soon as she heard this, and we are still celebrating this small victory.  I'm sure we have a lifetime of results waiting in the wings, but at least now we know they can go our way.

That's all for now.  

Thank you for all of your love and support,

Dan