You Take the Good with the Better Than Bad

I had a pet scan and an appointment with my oncologist this week. The pet scan showed what appears to be more evidence of progression at my primary lung tumor spot in my upper right lobe. We've been monitoring this since October 2016.

Lisa Moran, April 19, 2017

The next steps will be two biopsies. Blood work has already been sent to Guardant for a liquid biopsy. Hopefully, something will show up on this test. It's my second Guardant biopsy. The first didn't show anything, not even my EGFR gene mutation. I will also do a needle tissue biopsy.

With the biopsies, we are looking for any newly acquired lung cancer mutations and we need to confirm it is lung cancer progression instead of delayed radiation scarring. If it's cancer, I will be adding radiation to my treatment plan.

The scarring is a possibility. But my blood work numbers have continued to increase, a sign of progression. Plus, my radiation oncologist office called to schedule my radiation consultation. If you ask me, that's kind of putting the cart before the horse to schedule a treatment consult before my biopsy.

My oncologist said this is a good report. My targeted therapy, chemo pill, is still working throughout my body. There are no new nodules or tumors. There is only this one location of possible progression. Radiation treatments should take care of it.

Several people have referred to this as a bump in the road. It feels more like a detour. Either way, I'll be able to get back on track.

What can make a setback appointment a little more acceptable? A visit to an art exhibit to see paintings and drawings from Monet, Renoir, Picasso, Degas, Matisse and others. Masterworks is currently on display, for free, on campus at my cancer center. I'm thankful for the opportunity to see these works of art in person.

One other good thing happened at my appointment. I was presented an opportunity to participate in a clinical research trial. I submitted blood samples to help research and improve the future of liquid biopsies. Hopefully, one day, because of my participation in this trial, invasive, surgical biopsies could be a thing of the past.

One Year Ago Today...July 24, 2015

One year ago today the Uncle Samta windsock was hung with care and the first toy donation was under the tree. I had last minute preparations to complete for our Christmas in July party that was scheduled for the next day.

One other thing I had to do that day was get a CT scan. This was the next step after something cloudy showed up on an xray two weeks before. I was to get the scan and have a follow up office appointment, a week or two later, with my primary care physician, Dr. Bird. I never expected a follow up phone call within hours of my scan appointment.

It was Dr. Bird. I can't remember the words he said. Whatever it was it sounded serious enough for me to grab the nearest pen and piece of paper and started writing words and notes from our conversation.

For other breathing issues I had a CT scan in 2008. So we had a baseline to compare to. When referring to my upper right lobe he used the words, mass and slow growing neoplasm. There were spots and nodules throughout both of my lungs. The nodules looked like an infection in the scan. I had been tested for TB. But it was days before we had the final results. There was a possibility I had tuberculosis. But I hadn't been out of the country or around anyone with TB. I discussed the party with Dr. Bird. I didn't want to spread an infection to my family and friends. And I didn't want to cancel the day before. He suggested I cancel the party. But if I decided to still have the party, I needed to keep my distance, wear a mask and not cough near anyone in case this was an infection. He referred me to a pulmonologist for the next test, a bronchoscopy, scope biopsy, to determine if the neoplasm was benign or malignant.

I had never heard the word, neoplasm. So I went to the internet to look up the definition. 

It was the the first time the word cancer had come up. I decided to stay away from the internet research until we knew exactly what we were dealing with. I didn't want to waste time and energy researching anything that didn't pertain to me and my condition.

I decided the show must go on. I didn't cancel the party. I didn't wear a mask. I had been around so many people at home and work. There was no way I had a contagious infection. Someone would have caught it by that point. We had fun, drinks and laughs that night. And we collected a bunch of toys for the Bob Telmosse Christmas Giveaway.

It was a good time and a much needed distraction that weekend.