No Spread!!!

I just spoke with Dr. Dramov, my Naturopathic doctor, about some other happenings, and the potential ability to get back on the Vitamin C I.V. at little to no cost to me. That would be great if that's what we decide is best.

In any case, I asked him if he had the results of my PET scan from Tuesday, and he did although he had not looked through it yet. He examined it and said that according to the summary there is no sign of any metastatic disease and the tumor is about in the same state it was in two months ago, although the SUV was slightly higher.

He encouraged me to discuss this with Dr. Chang as well (which obviously is the plan for next Tuesday).

Anyway, thought I'd pass along what is seemingly good news!

Right Place, Wrong Time

I got the day mixed up somehow for my PET scan and went on Tuesday Nov 17 rather than Wednesday Nov 18. This was not good because I couldn't have done the test on Wednesday due to work schedule and the fact I already made special arrangements to be off on Nov 17... Well, they were able to schedule me to do the PET scan at 9:30 which meant waiting for 2 hours, but I survived and will take better note of my appointments from now on. I should learn the results of this PET scan next Tuesday at 3:30 when I meet with Dr. Chang.

HCG Test Results

Just got the test results from the HCG test (Philippines). It is at encouraging that the measurment is the same as the test in June. We are going to try to do this test every 8 weeks or so to monitor it "serially" as the doctor suggests below.

Your latest HCG test result on 11-6-09 is: Index +/- 4,(52.2 Int. Units) This is within the positive range. It shows no change as compared to the last result on 6-9-09(52.2 IU). Results can reach as much as 10,000 int. units or more especially in testicular cancer, some uterine cancers(H mole and choriocarcinoma) and germ cell tumor. However, most other cancers have result from 50 to 80 or 90 int. units. The test cannot stage the cancer but when done on a serial basis, say once a month or once every two months, the progress of the condition can be monitored.

INTERPRETATION of READINGS
of Chorionic Gonadotrophin Urinalyses

Index Int. Units Reading Interpretation
0 zero (-) Negative
1-3 1-49 (+/-) Doubtful
4 50-400 (+) Faintly Positive
5 401-999 (++) Definitely Positive
6 1000-3000 (+++) Moderately Positive
7 3001-5000 (++++) Markedly Positive
8 5001-10,000 (+++++) Very Markedly Positive
9 over 10,000 (++++++) Excessively Positive

Round 3

Just so ya'll know what's up...November 17 I'm getting another PET/CT scan to see what the status of the cell mass is. We should know the results by about Nov 24. We're hoping to see shrinkage in the cell mass and a lower activity level than the PET/CT in September. That would be encouraging. We're also really hoping to see no spread and no other potential "hot spots".

Also, we have sent in the HCG urine test to the Philippines. We're expecting the results for this to be in this week sometime.

Will post again when this comes in. Until then...be safe (but have fun)!