Harpooning

Well there is good news and there is and medium-good news and banal news and bad news and really bad news. Which do you want first? I will take the good news first with a side of onion rings!

I had my third PET scan on January 4th. 2008. Such a crazy test! It is actually measuring how things are doing on a cellular level. The day before you cannot eat any carbs. It is kind of a meat day. Additionally, no strenuous activity so clearly I cannot slaughter my own meat. I have to purchase it at a store.

Anyhow, then you can have nothing after 8pm. No water, no nothing. Your necessary medications are OK in the morning but with 20 ounces of water. Once you arrive at the scanning center (if your bladder hasn't burst) you get to drink two liters of barium. Yum! Yum! and not filling at all! (Go for the Banana over the Vanilla if given the choice.) Once you get the super radioactive sauce shot into your veins you have to remain perfectly still. No gum chewing and no reading. This would make your eyes or your mouth might light up on the scan.

The other weird thing is that the radioactive sauce is in the big metal box and the syringe is in a thick metal sleeve. The tech has 3 radiation exposure markers on her person but it is being mainlined by cancer girl. It is so weird. It makes me feel dirty from the inside out in a Karen Silkwood kind of way. Then you lie on the conveyor belt and you go into the tube. You must remain perfectly still (which is easier said than done.) It is not as long as a MRI but still it is long enough.

You come out, you pee (and it really is radioactive not just B vitamins) and you are on your way. Now you can't be around children or pregnant people for 10-12 hours but you are FINE it is SAFE!!! It is akin to taking direction from Mr. Burns on the Simpson's.

The good news is that every cancer tumor, cell or lesion in my body is either shrinking or slowing down (not up taking estrogen as fast.) Isn't that great? The medium good news is that there was an area that lit up on the PET which was my left armpit node. As we all remember this was the first lump I found in June. The first one is the one that you find and then you get buzzed and have your girlfriend, in my case Kimmie Kilker, feel you up in the Newcastle Golf & Country Club bathroom to give you a second opinion. The girlfriend ALWAYS precedes the physician.

The banal news is that this could be due to an infection process that couples with swollen lymph nodes. The bad news is that it could also be due to the cancer cells in that lymph node becoming Tamoxifen resistant. The really bad news is that the treatment for the bad news is a drug called Faslodex. It is "indicated for the treatment of hormone receptor positive metastatic breast cancer in post-menopausal women with disease progression following anti-estrogen therapy." You know me and the 4 other women on the planet that this applies to. (Yes, Lucinda, I read the entire drug company insert. Now and forever a geek!)

You may be asking why this is such bad news. Well here is why: The effin shot is a harpoon. It could take down a whale. It is about a 16 gauge needle and the drug is the viscosity of honey. It is a 2 minute push in the ass. It is so incredibly uncomfortable. The fabulous oncology nurses do a great job with what they have BUTT it isn't pretty.

Oh and other late breaking good news is that after 2 months of having my CA 27-29 be relatively unchanged (Oct. 75, Nov. 68, Dec. 77) it is down to 51. FIFTY ONE! That is so awesome and definitely worth a pain in the butt every month.