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Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Under the skin

So here I am stripped down beneath the skin in September 2006. I had the CDs of my PET/CT scans with me when I went to get one today at a different hospital. When we were done they burned me a CD of today's scan to take with me for any of my doctors that would want to take a peek and they gave me back the ones I brought for comparison after copying them. So I have CDs of 6 PET/CT scans and 2 MRIs. The ones I got today don't have a way to export them on my computer so I couldn't really compare side by side to my old ones. I don't know what the heck I'm looking at anyway. I can barely tell which end is which except in the ones like my photo above where they have a good section of the body. But the ones which are of a small section of the body and show the most detail are total gibberish to me. That doesn't mean I haven't been driving myself insane looking at them since I got home but that's it. No more. I am going to have to trust my doctor to tell me that everything is fine or not because I'll never figure this stuff out. If he doesn't call me in a day or so I'll give him a call. I was a little disappointed to find out my C reactive protein has gone up considerably when what I was hoping for was that it would be down to zero. It's stayed up now for 6 months but the problem with these non specific tests is they really don't help much besides driving me crazy. It's kind of like the Steve Martin routine about all the delightful things taking a prescription drug will do. The C reactive protein can go up due to heart disease, cancer, virus, infection, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and pretty much for any reason. My rheumatologist is the one who ordered that blood test because I was sent to him on the off chance I had lupus. He was sure that wasn't what was wrong with me but he did that non specific test and naturally it was not only high once but now has stayed high 3 times with repeat tests every two months. I am not going to drive myself crazy with that one. The RHEUM doctor faxed it to the medical ONC again to see what he thinks and all I know is in the scheme of things I'm doing pretty damn well and I am going to figure out a way to stop thinking about this stuff if it's the last thing I do.

2 comments:

King (Kathie) said...

Looking good, Carver!!! LOL! I was thinking of you today knowing it was scan day. It is so wonderful when we get the break from being a patient. I know this is a big medical week for you. I hope you get the results of your scan real soon - the waiting is so tough. Praying that you will remain NED.

Stay Strong

King (Kathie)
Stage IV 7/05 Liver mets

Anonymous said...

Infernal waiting!
I am glad you put the slides away.
Everything's gonna be alright.

Carver, I think you and I have anxiety issues. :)