The results are in....

Dr. Roa: We are all here, we have very good news!
Mike, Peg, Kellie, Keri: YAY!!!!!! (clapping, high fives...happy tears)

Through the tears of relief and the smiles of hope exchanged with each other, the rest of the visit was a blur, aside from a few key points, shrinking & less active. As promised, here is my full report:

One hour prior to a PET scan (a more detailed CT), a glucose tracer is injected into the blood circulation. Cancer loves sugar, during the wait the tracer becomes concentrated in the tissues of interest, thus feeding the cancer which will show up on the scan as active hot spots. The intensity of these hot spots are then measured for size and how active the cancer is. The less active, the smaller, the better.

The mass in Dad's upper lobe on an uptake scale of 0-30 was a 23 and is now a 15/16! The mass size was 9.5cm and is now 6cm! With an uptake level of just 3 on his spine, it could now just be preexisting arthritis and no longer cancer!

Dad started his weekly Erbitux treatment last week and is beginning to develop the expected rash side effect. At first thought you may feel as if a side effect is something we would prefer to dodge, but not with Erbitux. The development of the rash is a sign that the drug is working and Dr. Roa expects an increased shrink rate with this treatment.

Leading up to the scan, our nerves were high - we said things like "when we get the good results" and "why worry, everything is going great." I'll admit, sometimes I would think to myself and hope that I wasn't just fooling myself, that maybe I was in the denial stage again. Today, I feel stronger than ever, that a positive outlook and perspective on life is the fuel the feeds our little engines that can, that will, that are.

Thank you once again for all your prayers, energy, love and support. We look forward to sharing more good news with the next scan.

A few more of my favorite quotes of the day:
"Once you choose hope, anything is possible" -Christopher Reeves
"Never thought anyone would ever be so excited about a rash" -Mom
"I haven't been so pain free in my life, since I started working" -Dad

Keri
(peaceofkeri@gmail.com)