Well, we had a great visit with mom's oncologist today & received the results of her most recent CT scan. I am thrilled to announce that he really feels like mom is doing well right now!
He wants us to go have a biopsy on her thyroid to see what exactly it is that has latched on, but that there is a good chance that it is just a benign (having little or no detrimental effect; harmless) goiter. (In case you haven't noticed, if there is a line under a word, it is because if you click on it, it will take you to another page. Go ahead... you know you want to try it...) If the biopsy comes back positive for cancer, they are able to remove the thyroid and mom can function by taking meds. Often they don't even have to use chemo or radiation because thyroid cancer is often encapsulated and can be completely removed with surgery.
Now, he did not say that she is cancer free, nor that there might not be trouble in the future - just that, at this moment, the "hot spots" that showed up on the PET scan a few weeks ago, are not significant enough to warrant treatment. We will be testing her more often and watching for any symptoms of trouble, but, for right now, she will not be subjected to chemo or radiation for those spots.
Tomorrow we will go to the radiologist and he will most likely schedule an MRI of her head to check the tumor in her brain. At this point, they are hoping that it has been eradicated, however, they *might* need to do a "boost" treatment. This is called a stereotactic radiosurgery. (there's that crafty link thing again!) I will try to get an entry up tomorrow and let you know what they tell us.
Mom's hemoglobin level was low today, so they have her an injection of Procrit. Procrit is a man-made form of a protein that helps your body produce red blood cells. This sometimes causes pain in the hips and leg areas because it induces the body to produce more red blood cells. Please pray that her pain is minimal and that it has the desired effect.
Thanks for keeping up with Team Berkley!
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