Good News is Better then Bad News.

It's one day short of 9 weeks since surgery. Yesterday, 5/29/13, I trekked into NY to get my first PET/CT combo scan (since I will need full body scans from here on out). Since Basking Ridge apparently isn't equipped with this machine, I'm now stuck with solely going to NY for any and every appointment that comes up...unless for some reason I need a "normal" test. Lovely.

Doped up on xanax and Benedryl, the prick of the finger and the IV injection weren't too bad this time around. Not to mention I made it abundantly clear that whoever was doing the stabbing needed to do it quick and on the first try.

With the combined scans, not only am I blessed with the radioactive glucose concoction, but I'm also required to drink the mouth-watering, chalky-liquid-jello-mix beverage. Yum. Lucky me!

Aside from waiting for what felt like five days, the actual scan wasn't that bad. In fact, I fell asleep, haha. Normally while laying in these machines I'm greeted with a deep robotic "breathe in...hold..."...then, "Breathe." voice. With this combined test, all I need to do is lay there without moving.

Due to the fact that Benedryl makes me drowsy as it is on top of whatever dose of xanax I decide to self-medicate with, I'm normally pretty sleepy by the time I hit whatever machine I'm being run through that day. Yesterday was no exception (especially since I'm not allowed to eat 6 hours before the test and I was taken in approximately two hours after my scheduled time). Because all I had to do was lay there for a half hour or so without having to hold my breath at random times, I passed out. I awoke with a jolt to some Tech un-velcroing the lead apron thingy that was strapped around my waist. At least I was able to catch a quick nap.

My appointment with my Oncologist isn't until this Monday, June 3rd so I wasn't really expecting the outcome of my results until then. Fortunately for me, my doctor likes to deliver good news quickly nowadays so when my mother called me this afternoon and informed me that my scans were clear, aside from the three unchanged tumors in my lungs, I was glad.

My mom said that my doctor was running out to a meeting but she asked briefly if she had any clue why the meds were working in my lungs and not everywhere else. She was met with the response: "If only curing LMS was that easy..." <-- a typical response from my Oncologist. The other piece of my mother's short conversation with my doctor was that she asked if I wanted to remain on the Lupron injections. Why wouldn't I? I found this to be a strange question being that as far as we knew, the combo of injections and daily Letrozole pills were keeping the lung masses at bay. I'm definitely going to inquire about this at our meeting on Monday.

I'm trying to train myself to recognize that any good news is better then bad news. Unfortunately for me, lately I feel as though I can't really celebrate the good news because I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop. I realize this is not the way to think or live, but it's difficult. I CAN say, however, this surgery was kind of a breeze compared to the last two. My leg didn't really hurt too much at all (or at least what I expected) and my butt...well, I'm able to sit on it for longer periods of time as the days go on. Overall, the pain/comfort level of this surgery was a lot more "pleasant" (if that's a word I can even use...) then the last two...or even four.

I'm able to walk just fine and have the same mobility I had before going under the knife. The two spots that were chopped up look fairly normal, other then the inevitable scar-lines. I mentally prepared for some weird, con-caved spots on my calf and ass cheek but overall, they basically look the same - which I'm super happy about.

Aside from being on these meds, I've decided to try to starve these fucking evil Cancer cells by attempting to cut out as many carbs and as much sugar as I can (since Cancer is known to feed off glucose/sugar). For anyone that knows me, you know I LOVE carbs. Bread, pasta, rice, whatever...I can't even have multi-grain shit. It was difficult for the first week or so but I've been trying to stay as true as I can to this "diet" of sorts as I possibly can. I only started about 2 and 1/2 weeks ago but it makes me feel better to believe that I'm trying to fight this disease in another way on top of taking meds - plus I've lost 8lbs so far. We shall see. I've read so much about altering the way you eat to combat disease so I'm kind of tailoring a few different beliefs into my own way of eating. If anything, at least I know it's a healthier alternative to whatever I was doing before. Can't hurt, right?