A Familiar Routine

Monday - October 21, 2013

Details may be different but the routine remains the same....  Hands above my head or strapped to my waist straight-jacket style, the PET scan always proves irresistible for a nap underneath a warm (sometimes hot blanket)....  And either in my own carefully selected metal-free outfit or the UCSF mandated multi-part green gowns, the MRI remains a loud raucous hour where I find myself counting the beats and wondering about the reasons for the different rhythms, pitches, and decibals.

Details, details ....

Yes, it was scan day once again.  "Watchful waiting" means that every 3 months I load up with contrast via IV and enter into the multimillion dollar machines that peer inside me looking for masses, tumors, and any other harbingers of lymphoma activity.  I'm not sure if it's angst, hunger, contrast-reaction, or a general undercurrent of fatigue but I always get home ready to snuggle the hounds and grab a late afternoon snooze.... Tired.

The oncologist should be in contact this week with the PET and MRI results.  Then it's decision time.  Either we're back in chemo action against a relapsed disease OR -- let's hope -- we're retrenching a bit by removing my port and lengthening the time between scans to 6 months.  Tick tock.  Can't wait for the call.  I just can't stand the waiting....