To say it wasn't the best day to spend your birthday would be an understatement but on Stacy's birthday last Monday (7/11), we were back at Dana-Farber for scans, blood work and a meeting again with Dr. LaCasce.
The scans showed a couple of slightly enlarged lymph nodes in my abdomen but that was it. My blood work looked good (eventually, I'll probably understand what makes it look good or not good, but for now, I'll just take Dr. LaCasce's word on the matter. She did explain what it was that specifically looked good, but the only word I really heard was the "good" part.)
By the way, I like the way she gives news. Somewhere in between entering the room, shaking my hand, and taking a seat, she's already laid out the news -- in this case, two small lymph nodes in the abdomen. "Out of how many nodes?" I asked.
"Loads of nodes."
So what do we do? We wait and watch. Or watch and wait. Or actively monitor. What that means is that every three months I see her and have blood work; and every six months or so, I have scans -- unless I have any symptoms (fatigue, fever, night sweats, noticeably enlarged lymph nodes, etc.). And we watch and wait, and with luck, we stay in watch and wait for a long time.
No comments:
Post a Comment