Oncology appointment today

She has a 4.5 CM tumor on her upper Right lobe and a 2.5 cm tumor on her right middle lower lobe
She also has three tumors on her left lung that range from 1.3 CM to 1.9 CM  I have placed X's to represent  where these might be in her lungs based on the report. 

Today at 10:30 my mom her friend Arlene and I go in to see her oncologist. We arrived at the same time at the oncologist. She has completed two of the three tests he has ordered.  She got her PET scan on Valentines day which she said it took about three hours and they started scanning below her eyebrows to the bottom of the trunk of her body.  Yesterday, February 16th, she had a bone scan.

I woke up this morning and Samantha has been up all night with a tummy ache.  So the plan for the day is to attend my mom's doctors appointment and then take Sami-Jo out to see the pediatrician.  Samantha has pain in her upper left abdominal quadrant.

  At the appointment  Dr. Kuo was very nice, I really like him.  He explained to my mom that the PET scan showed that her lymphatic system was cancer free as well as her abdominal cavity. So it has not spread to her lymph nodes like the earlier CAT scan had shown.

Her bone scan said on the report that said: Foci of uptake in the calvarium suspicious for metastatic lesions.  Which in layman's terms means that there are spots on her brain that they suspect might be cancerous. we will not have anything definite until she has her MRI with Contrast, which will have to be rescheduled sometime next month because of a conflict in her travel plans.

Her PET scan described the location and size of her tumors on her lungs. The largest mass has a SUV Standard uptake value of 18.8.  and the smaller tumor on her right middle lobe has an SUV uptake value of 6.4,   all of these tumors are described medically as hypermetabolic which means fast growing.
There was also a paragraph that said

she has multiple hypermetabolic bilateral pulmonary lesions are identified and described.

Hypermetabolic right paratracheal, right hilar, subcarinal and aortopulmonary window pathologic lymph nodes are seen. No evidence of left hilar lymphandenopathy.  It's all Greek to me.
(Which means that there are cancerous lymph nodes next to her trachea, and in the area between both lungs.The left lymph node is normal)


Her next appointment is scheduled for March 6 at 8 AM


diagram of lung taken from website: http://www.innerbody.com/anim/lungs.html

CAT SCAN WITH BIOPSY

Arlene, Judy and LaDon
Photo taken by Robin Barnett 

We waited in a small waiting room for my mom to finish her CAT Scan with biopsy.  My sister in law met me in the front of the hospital and we had coffee and chatted about things.   We kept looking for my mom and her friend Arlene to walk through the front door of the hospital.  They must have come in right before we did and we finally walked back to the CAT scan department and there they were.

We waited for them to finally take her back for her CAT scan.  Today is the day that they inserted a needle into her back and took the fluid out of the syringe to look at under the microscope to give her a diagnosis of cancer.

When I was going back to see my mom after the procedure I saw a nice gentleman, my husband goes to lodge with, Ben Hagen was in the bed right next to my mom.  It was such a surprise to see him and he thought for a moment that I had come to visit him.

She was finally released from the CAT scan and we decided to go to Canton's for lunch afterward, my sister in law went and got her daughter Monica and we shared a late lunch.   Now it's a wait and see thing.  She has had some pain and has a band aide in her back where the needle puncture was.