Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Reports of my Demise, Blah Blah Blah
Ok, so I was wrong about the doom and gloom and my chemo seems to be doing what it's supposed to. My tumor markers are holding steady. My scans seem to indicate that my bones are mostly stable (the bone scan shows possible increased "uptake" but the scan itself doesn't show the disease, it shows the disease being attacked--they call this a "flare effect" and is not cause for panic) and the tumors in my liver are reduced both in size and number (one went from 7cm to 4.5cm). I have some tiny spots in my lungs that don't appear to be doing anything, and there may or may not be some pleural thickening--the CT slices do not necessarily exactly line up from scan to scan, which is possibly why sometimes the couple of lung spots show up and sometimes they don't.
Huh?
Also, my spleen is about three times bigger than it should be, which would not be inconsistent with a liver that's having a tough time. No wonder I feel bloaty. I asked Dr. Hayes, "How big should my spleen BE?" He held up his fist to demonstrate. My spleen is currently 14cm, so I'm walking around with the equivalent of having eaten two large apples at all times in my belly, not to mention the extra mass in my liver. They are testing to rule out hepatitis. If it's not that, I don't know what else they can do. Maybe there's a crucial blockage somewhere. They might refer me to a liver specialist.
Brian and I went to a lecture last night about treating cancer that has metastasized to the liver, and I left feeling very bummed because I have too much cancer for any of the treatments to be considered viable. What else is a liver specialist going to be able to do for me?
Finally, the morning ickiness is probably due to GERD and Lita says I can increase my prilosec and/or keep soda crackers to pop in the morning if I'm feeling not quite right.
The Mini-Doom
The puzzling thing is why, given the reduction in size and number of my liver blobs, are my liver function tests not improved? The analysis states that my liver is irregular in shape, possibly due to carrying around multiple blobs of unholy cell mutantage, or it could be consistent with cirrhosis.Huh?
Also, my spleen is about three times bigger than it should be, which would not be inconsistent with a liver that's having a tough time. No wonder I feel bloaty. I asked Dr. Hayes, "How big should my spleen BE?" He held up his fist to demonstrate. My spleen is currently 14cm, so I'm walking around with the equivalent of having eaten two large apples at all times in my belly, not to mention the extra mass in my liver. They are testing to rule out hepatitis. If it's not that, I don't know what else they can do. Maybe there's a crucial blockage somewhere. They might refer me to a liver specialist.
Brian and I went to a lecture last night about treating cancer that has metastasized to the liver, and I left feeling very bummed because I have too much cancer for any of the treatments to be considered viable. What else is a liver specialist going to be able to do for me?
The Annoyance
Also, no news on the back pain. I am to try taking ibuprofen and to avoid hopping on the trapeze.Finally, the morning ickiness is probably due to GERD and Lita says I can increase my prilosec and/or keep soda crackers to pop in the morning if I'm feeling not quite right.
Labels: bone scan, Brian, CT scan, Dr. Hayes, Lita, liver, lungs, spleen
