Is my cancer gone or do I still have it? All that matters is God is a mighty savior. With His love, He calms my fears. He will take care of me.
April 9th I went to Kirklin Clinic to have a PET scan and to visit my doctor. All day I had people posting on my facebook, twitter, and texting me to show their support and to let me know they were praying. That meant more to me than anyone will ever know.
My PET scan lasted about two hours and I slept through most of it. The PET scan pretty much shows whether or not I still have cancer spots or if they are completely gone. I have to sit in a chair for almost an hour just letting medicine run through my body. The medicine will help the certain cancerous spots to show up in my body during the PET scan. I then lay on a small table that moves me through a big tube that x-rays my body to find the cancer areas.
Afterwards, I had to go have blood work done which doesn’t take very long and then went to see my doctor. After waiting for a while, my doctor finally came in to see me. He informed us that he had seen the blood work and the PET scan. The blood work looked good and my immune system is still picking back up. He hadn’t got back an official report on my PET scan but from what he had seen it looked good. However, he didn’t want to tell us that until he had the official word. So he went over a few things with me and my parents. First of all, if I still have cancer he won’t perform radiation on me because of my age. Radiation can cause other cancers to pop up throughout my body and he doesn’t want to risk that. So if cancer remained he would do chemotherapy again. Secondly, if the PET scan doesn’t show any cancer then I could have my port removed and if it is still there I will keep the port to use during chemotherapy.
Now, to get to the part that everyone is wondering! After waiting 24 hours to find out the official results of the test, my doctor finally called and filled me and my family in on the results. I still have a spot in my chest. Back in October, if you remember, I had a spot on my lungs. From this PET scan, it shows that spot is now gone. However, I have a different spot in between my lungs. My doctor doesn’t think it’s lymphoma. He doesn’t think the spot is anything to worry about. He is going to keep a check on it for now to see if it progresses or if it disappears. Because of this, I will keep my port in until I’m in the clear to get it removed. This spot could have been from the way I was laying during the PET scan or it could be a scar from when I had pneumonia when I was little. There’s no way to tell and be certain right now. I’m at ease knowing my doctor doesn’t think it’s lymphoma or something to worry about.
I go back in July to have a CT scan on that area in my chest and also to see my doctor. If cancer remains, I will begin chemotherapy. If I show no signs of cancer, I can have my port removed and I will visit my doctor every three months and have PET scans every six months. If every PET scan continues to go good, it will spread out the amount of PET scans I have to have a year. My doctor said that he won’t say I’m cured or a cancer survivor for at least three years. The cancer can easily come back between three to five years after treatment. So for now, I’m going to carry on and live my life as normal as possible. Until I go back in July for my CT scan to see what exactly that spot is in hopes of it being nothing at all. Overall, this is great news!
I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for your sweet prayers, thoughts, support, and beautiful pictures that you sent me. It all means so much to me that I can’t even truly explain my gratitude. I serve an awesome God and He has blessed me with so much. He calms all my fears and helps me with whatever news or trials I may receive. His love makes me strong.
For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs. Zephaniah 3:17
April 10, 2013
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