Test Results

I've written several times recently about all the tests and scans I was getting during the past month or so, but I haven't yet said much on my blog about the results. 

One of my readers, someone who is fairly new to my blog, reminded me today in the most gentle fashion that she (and probably other readers) was a bit worried about me because I hadn't said anything. 

So, apologies for that. The news, what news I've gotten, is mostly good. I don't have the results from the PET/CT I had on Thursday, and I don't have the results from the exercise test I had at the UW a couple of weeks ago, because that doctor, the lung specialist, was out of town all last week and no one else in her office seemed able to give me the results. 

That's a bit annoying, but at the same time it is so "business as usual" when you're in the cancer world that I just don't let it get to me anymore. 

But the other tests and scans, when lumped all together, showed that both my heart and my lungs were in pretty good shape, in excellent shape considering that I've been poisoning myself on a regular basis for 10 years straight with chemo and radiation both. 

I do have some gastric reflux, aggravated (probably) by recent radiation to the spine and also by the Tykerb, which makes me nauseous. I'm trying "behavioral changes" as a first step to get that under control. That was my choice. I said no to the endoscopy Dr. Lee wanted, at least for now. 

And the CT I had of my chest and abdomen showed that my cancer was behaving itself pretty well--the bone mets were read as stable, and the met in my lung has grown slightly, which I am refusing to worry about. 

So that's it so far. I feel like it was a lot of my time and energy--and my insurance companies' money--to find out so little, but when I think about it a bit more, less is more in my case. 

I'll call tomorrow or Tuesday to try to get the last two sets of results, and if nothing much shows up there, the only thing left on my cancer radar screen in the near future is to decide what treatment I am going to do next. Not that I'm not getting treatment now, but I declined any more conventional chemo drugs, so Dr. Lee and I need to come up with a new plan. It's not likely that the Herceptin, zometa, and Tykerb will keep my cancer in check for long. 

Now, I can focus on my next adventure, which is a trip to Germany with Younger Son. We're calling it The Military History Tour, Part II. 

Because about four years ago, when YS was 14, I took him to Japan for a week and I let him choose all the places we visited, and they were, with one exception, all places that had something to do with Japan's military history. I was fine with that, because my goals were to spend time in Japan with Younger Son--and also to see some old friends there--and I didn't care all that much what we actually did. 

So we went to Yasukuni Shrine (which has a fantastic military history museum), Himeiji Castle (samurai era history), and Hiroshima (WWII). And one day when I was taking a rest day on the couch, Younger Son and the friend we were visiting, a military history nut herself, went to the Japanese Self-Defense Forces PR Center. That was a highlight of our visit for both of them. 

The only place we went that was non-military was Meiji-mura, an outdoor museum that covers acres of land and has a collection of Meiji Period (1868 to about 1912) buildings that were moved to the site from all over the world. It is amazing. My favorite is still the prison, and I don't even worry too much about what that says about me. Oh, and the Emperor Meiji's personal train car. That's also pretty amazing. Plush. Rich red velvet and lots of gold everywhere. 

Those of you who have been readers of this blog for awhile will recall that Younger Son and I took a train trip together last year. It makes me very happy that YS still likes to travel with me, and we do have a good time together. 

Older Son, on the other hand, hasn't wanted to travel with his brother and me since he was about 16, and there's not much I can do about that. The other night, he was acting like he felt a bit left out, but the reality is if I offered to buy him a ticket, he'd refuse. So I have to be OK with that, and I mostly am. 

Here's the link to last year's Mother/Son Adventure: Home Again, Home Again

@ Jeanne Sather 2009.

Comments

[maryM]

Didn't your older son just get a great new job? It's just as well he didn't want to go - it's probably not the best time for him to be taking time off.

My Mom is trying diet changes for gastric issues. It's slow going for her. I'll say that while the European diet isn't all that low-fat, the portion sizes and un-availability of foodstuffs keep things moderated. Have you been watching war movies to get yourself primed?

[carrie s]

I'm so happy for you that things are looking ok/stable/not so dire after all those tests.
Would love to hear where you are going on the trip, and all about it as time permits.

[Megan Jones]

So glad to hear test results are mostly good. I was wondering, too. Thanks for posting.