I’m not a radiologist
The official reading of the PET scan was not quite as good as my version. They are calling it PR (partial response), not CR (complete response). I think it’s MR (mostly response), but that’s not a real thing.
So, where do we go from here... the Johns Hopkins doctor returned my oncologists call while I’m was in the room, so I got to hear the whole conversation on speaker phone. And, it was more of the same nebulous stuff. He keeps using the expression “data free zone,” which the data geek in my totally wants to own. But, after some discussion, the doctors decided to give me one more round of chemo. It really could have gone either way, but since cycle 2 was only half a cycle, they seemed to lean toward going one more. So one more it is. Dammit. I wanted to be done! I hate the mustard gas.
And I told him that he won the radiation battle. I told him basically the same thing I said below, including accepting that I’ll be taken out by a stroke someday. Hopefully a long time from now, but it is what it is. You’d think an oncologist would be a realist about death, but he seemed really bothered by that statement. It’s not like I’m going out and doing me will, upping life insurance (ha! As if I could get it!), etc. Just matter of fact that the odds are not in my favor.
On a happy note, we are going to Sedona next week! Yay for mid-chemo vacations!
Oh, and the insurance stuff... they paid for everything except the two expensive chemo drugs ($45k and $13k). Those two need more documentation before they’ll pay. Joy. But everyone is on it, and I just wait.
So, where do we go from here... the Johns Hopkins doctor returned my oncologists call while I’m was in the room, so I got to hear the whole conversation on speaker phone. And, it was more of the same nebulous stuff. He keeps using the expression “data free zone,” which the data geek in my totally wants to own. But, after some discussion, the doctors decided to give me one more round of chemo. It really could have gone either way, but since cycle 2 was only half a cycle, they seemed to lean toward going one more. So one more it is. Dammit. I wanted to be done! I hate the mustard gas.
And I told him that he won the radiation battle. I told him basically the same thing I said below, including accepting that I’ll be taken out by a stroke someday. Hopefully a long time from now, but it is what it is. You’d think an oncologist would be a realist about death, but he seemed really bothered by that statement. It’s not like I’m going out and doing me will, upping life insurance (ha! As if I could get it!), etc. Just matter of fact that the odds are not in my favor.
On a happy note, we are going to Sedona next week! Yay for mid-chemo vacations!
Oh, and the insurance stuff... they paid for everything except the two expensive chemo drugs ($45k and $13k). Those two need more documentation before they’ll pay. Joy. But everyone is on it, and I just wait.
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