We had Tuesday off so we went to the Galleria Mall, which was huge and was real easy to get lost. We walked around for maybe an hour and didn't buy one thing. After that we had lunch we headed to the zoo for free admission day. It was nice to walk around, relax and not think or worry about why we were really down in TX. For dinner we went and ate at this real nice steak house called Vic and Anthony's. The atmosphere was nice and the food was great. We saw James Harden, who had just been recently traded to the Houston Rockets. His sweat pants and t-shirt were not up to the dress code of the restaurant but he was still allowed to eat!
Wednesday was another long day. We got to the hospital around noon and I had to get an IV put in for the scans. They were nice enough to let me keep the same IV in for both the bone scan and the CT scan instead of having to poke me twice. After they put my radioactive material in the IV I had to wait for about 2 hours until they could do the scan. The bone scan wasn't bad at all, I got to take a short nap during it. They ended up taking a few extra shots because this was my first bone scan I had done. When the scan was finished the doctor asked if I was getting radiation and if I had had an MRI recently. Of course I turned that into something negative and made myself believe he saw something on the scans.
I had to check in for the CT scan at 3:30 with the scan scheduled for 5:20. I was not looking forward to having to drink the barium again but luckily for me the lady mixed mine with sprite so it wasn't bad at all. I had to drink one cup and then wait for about an hour. Then I went back to this room and had to drink another cup and wait to get called into the room to get scanned. I was suppose to drink one more cup but they never gave it to me. This CT scan took maybe a total of 20 mins. They did scans of the chest, abdomen and pelvis area. After that they put in iodine and repeated the scans. The iodine makes your whole body warm up and makes you feel like you are peeing yourself. Dr. Siefker wanted extra scans of the pelvis since she saw something there in the last scans. After getting my IV removed we finally were free to leave the hospital around 7:15pm. Lets just say I was ready to get dinner and relax at the hotel.
Thursday was the day I would get the results from the scans and also see if I needed to meet with the radiation doctor. We got to the hospital around 8:30 and the wait was horrible. I wanted to throw up from being so nervous. Once I got called back to the room the fellow came in and revealed the best news I have heard in a long while. She said nothing showed up on either of the scans, there was no evidence of re-occurance of the cancer right now and that my blood work looked really good. At that point I could breath and relax. Dr. Siefker came in and let me know that she liked the way my scans look and that the spot near the pelvis she saw earlier didn't show up on these scans. She said it could have been a clot of some sort but it was no longer there. The bone scan looked good as well. There was a spot on my skull that could have just been from either falling off a golf cart, hitting my head doing gymnastics or from my bother beating me up when we were younger so she wasn't real concerned with it. We will just keep an eye on the spot when we repeat the scans in 3 months. Other good news for the day was that she didn't feel we needed to do radiation since there wasn't enough evidence that adenocarcinoma cells would travel to the brain.. The pathologist here looked at the slides from the tumor and they didn't see the small cell components we originally thought were there and they are the ones we were worried would travel to the brain. So since the tumor didn't show the small cell competent they would save my brain from radiation!
So now I can officially say I am cancer free! That is the best feeling ever, it has been a long road but we did it! I will still repeat my scans and blood work every three moths. I will probably alternate between getting the scans down at home and getting them done down here. Since I am now a registered patient here I can call and get an appointment anytime I may need one or I can email my doctor with any questions I may have.
Kyle and I had a free day on Friday and went down to Galveston. We did some shopping, which you could buy beer from the store and walk around town and drink it. We just had to experience it. We also walked on the beach for a little bit and enjoyed the water.
Our flight from Houston was on Saturday morning. It was really nice to get on that plane and head back home with good news. Once we got back to KS we hung out with my family for a while and then headed back to Manhattan. The puppies were just as excited to see us as we were to see them. It felt good to be back home and to be able to sleep in our own bed.
I want to thank everyone for their continued support throughout this journey. You made it a lot easier to get through this for myself and my family.
I have do another blog with pictures from the trip.
Love,
Jeryka
