CT Scan Report

Yesterday I had a follow-up CT scan performed to confirm the PET scan findings. It found two small spots on my liver. We will meet with the oncologist on Monday to discuss the strategy. I suspect these are CyberKnifeable unless one of them is too small. I'll let you know what we know as soon as we know it. :-)

Here's the report:

This Week's PET Scan Report

As you know, we have been getting worried because my CEA level has been steadily rising. Since my last post here are the CEA readings:

• 9/14:   3.8
• 9/28:   4.7
• 10/12:  6.4

Those jumps the last two times have had us particularly worried, and the oncologist agreed that it was time to run the next PET scan. My last scan was July 5th of this year.

Here is the report:

What this boils down to is that there's a suspicious spot on my liver that's just under 1 cm in size. The PET scan is great at detecting activity but when something is found in certain areas (like the liver) they like to follow up with a CT scan to get a very detailed image. Later this week I should be scheduled for a follow-up triple phase CT scan which will give us a better idea about what's going on, and it may (or may not - let's hope for not) find some additional activity that may be smaller. If this is an isolated lesion then it may be removed with the CyberKnife procedure. You can find out what that's all about here: http://www.cyberknife.com/. The patient brochure (a pdf download) gives some great information about the procedure. The oncologist said that if CyberKnife is an option for me it can make this go away with just 2-3 CyberKnife treatments and we won't even have to interrupt our current chemotherapy treatments to do it.

I will likely get the CT scan on Thursday. There's a chance I can get a copy of the report on Friday. If not, I'll get it next Monday (a week from today) when I return to see the doctor. Of course I'll keep this blog (and Facebook) posted.

On a different, but related, subject I have no idea what the significance is of my MediPort catheter tip being in the atrium of my heart. I assume that's where it's been for the last three years and I 'm not sure why it's being noted in this report. I can ask the oncologist (and also my primary doctor, whom I see next week as well) about it when I see them.

Until then, that's it for now.

Not Much to Update

I know, I know... I still haven't posted my latest PET scan report yet. Sometimes things slip my mind!! My last PET scan was on July 5, 2012. Here is the report:

And here are the CEA levels since my last post:

• 7/6:  2.8
• 7/24:  2.8
• 8/3:  3.3
• 8/17:  3.7 (Starting to get worried...)
• 8/31:  3.0 (Whew!!)

I had my 29th infusion of Avastin yesterday since this maintenance chemotherapy was started on 7/18/2011. Before every infusion I meet with my oncologist to go over any laboratory or scan results. He was visibly pleased with the dip in my CEA level this time. Originally his plan was to repeat the PET scan after every 6 treatments with modifications to this plan when the CEA indicates that a scan should be done sooner or can be pushed out. At this time he feels that perhaps we can scan after 8 treatments since my last scan. That scan was on 7/5/2012. You can see from the CEA results (it's checked before every Avastin infusion) that I've had 5 infusions since my last scan. We will keep an eye on the CEA and if it starts to go up again then perhaps we will do a scan sooner but I think the current plan is to do 3 more infusions before doing the next scan.

I'm comfortable with this. I'm starting to go to the gym again and we got a new bed so I'm sleeping very well. I'm eating well. Stress is relatively low. I'm managing this the best way I can, and it seems to be working, at least for now.