Yesterday was a long day. I had an appointment with my oncologist at 11:15 and my surgeon at 1:15. We left the house at 8, and didn't get back until 5. The appointments....went well. I got all of my questions answered, and I'm now much less nervous about everything.
Let's break down where I stand with this cancer. I now have all of the results of the scans I had before surgery. The last scan result I needed was the bone scan. Its Clean! No spreading of the cancer to my other bones. I asked my oncologist about the 2 mm nodule in my right lung. He's not worried about it at all. Since that was my first pure CT scan of my chest, the nodule could have been there my whole life. Also, 2 mm is the smallest size a CT scan can pick up. In other words...if you were to have 10 CT scans of your chest, not all of them would pick up the nodule. If my oncologist isn't worried about it, then neither am I. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but after surgery my hemoglobin dropped a lot. It dropped from 10 to 7, which caused me to become very tired during my stay in the hospital. To put the number into perspective, when you get below 8 you need a transfusion. The normal range is 13-16. Throughout treatment I've been pretty steady around 10. To help fix this without a transfusion I was given iron pills. Yesterday, I had blood work, and found out that my numbers are back up! Hemoglobin at 10.6.
Now the last result. Necrosis percentage....only 20-30%. Yeah I was just as shocked as you are right now reading this when I was told this yesterday. Even a little upset. But, here's the problem here...I was a little confused. Here's the explanation I got from my oncologist. He's not worried about it. For Ewing's sarcoma, the necrosis percentage doesn't hold much merit, but it does with other cancers. He told me that he's had patients who have had 100% necrosis, and have the cancer come back multiple times. He would have been more worried if Jimmy didn't shrink so much. I mean, obviously the treatment is working. I had an 82% shrink of my primary tumor. So nothing is changing with my chemo. The plan is staying the same. Same drugs, 3 more months, same rest period, Same Everything. I was still a little upset leaving the office, and on our trip to my surgeon's office. Out of all of the thoughts that were going through my head, only one thing was able to help me come to grips with the current situation, and to think rationally again. Math. I thought to myself... If my tumor never shrunk, the cells just stayed put when they died rather than just dissolving or whatever they do. This result would have been much different as you'll see now. Jimmy started at roughly 100 ml. After three months of chemo it was down to 18 ml. So 82% of the tumor was already dead. Lastly, 20-30% of Jimmy was dead when he came out. So something like 5 ml of what was left was dead. Add that to the 82 ml that was shrunk, and you get a much different result. 87% necrosis. And this explanation is similar to what my surgeon said when I asked about the necrosis. I finally was fine after my surgeon explained the necrosis, and why it isn't really that important. She's had many patients with even less necrosis do just fine.
Now onto the arm. Everything is looking good so far. The incision looks great. She was happy with the range of motion in my elbow. I'm pretty close to full range there already. I was prescribed more exercises for my shoulder, so I'm progressing. I'm now able to hold up to 5 lbs with my arm. I have rehab at noon today. I can't wait to perform these new exercises. I have a follow up appointment in 4 weeks. She said that I might have the green light to do more things with my arm. Like play basketball. I was shocked that I might be shooting hoops in 4 weeks. She said it'll be good rehab. The main thing holding me back right now is my deltoid muscle. That needed to be detached, and then reattached during surgery. It's still healing right now, and I don't have much strength in it right now. The weakness in my deltoid muscle makes it difficult to raise my arm. Lastly, my arm isn't really that sore now. I'm not taking the painkillers anymore. Just Advil when I need it.
Looking forward I got the OK to return to chemo on the 30th. Not looking forward to it, but it must be done. 6 more treatment, 18 more days, 3 more cycles, 3 more months, that's all that remains. I already did it once. I can do this again. Hopefully I can stay as healthy as I did the first time.
Have a Merry Christmas Everyone.
Let's break down where I stand with this cancer. I now have all of the results of the scans I had before surgery. The last scan result I needed was the bone scan. Its Clean! No spreading of the cancer to my other bones. I asked my oncologist about the 2 mm nodule in my right lung. He's not worried about it at all. Since that was my first pure CT scan of my chest, the nodule could have been there my whole life. Also, 2 mm is the smallest size a CT scan can pick up. In other words...if you were to have 10 CT scans of your chest, not all of them would pick up the nodule. If my oncologist isn't worried about it, then neither am I. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but after surgery my hemoglobin dropped a lot. It dropped from 10 to 7, which caused me to become very tired during my stay in the hospital. To put the number into perspective, when you get below 8 you need a transfusion. The normal range is 13-16. Throughout treatment I've been pretty steady around 10. To help fix this without a transfusion I was given iron pills. Yesterday, I had blood work, and found out that my numbers are back up! Hemoglobin at 10.6.
Now the last result. Necrosis percentage....only 20-30%. Yeah I was just as shocked as you are right now reading this when I was told this yesterday. Even a little upset. But, here's the problem here...I was a little confused. Here's the explanation I got from my oncologist. He's not worried about it. For Ewing's sarcoma, the necrosis percentage doesn't hold much merit, but it does with other cancers. He told me that he's had patients who have had 100% necrosis, and have the cancer come back multiple times. He would have been more worried if Jimmy didn't shrink so much. I mean, obviously the treatment is working. I had an 82% shrink of my primary tumor. So nothing is changing with my chemo. The plan is staying the same. Same drugs, 3 more months, same rest period, Same Everything. I was still a little upset leaving the office, and on our trip to my surgeon's office. Out of all of the thoughts that were going through my head, only one thing was able to help me come to grips with the current situation, and to think rationally again. Math. I thought to myself... If my tumor never shrunk, the cells just stayed put when they died rather than just dissolving or whatever they do. This result would have been much different as you'll see now. Jimmy started at roughly 100 ml. After three months of chemo it was down to 18 ml. So 82% of the tumor was already dead. Lastly, 20-30% of Jimmy was dead when he came out. So something like 5 ml of what was left was dead. Add that to the 82 ml that was shrunk, and you get a much different result. 87% necrosis. And this explanation is similar to what my surgeon said when I asked about the necrosis. I finally was fine after my surgeon explained the necrosis, and why it isn't really that important. She's had many patients with even less necrosis do just fine.
Now onto the arm. Everything is looking good so far. The incision looks great. She was happy with the range of motion in my elbow. I'm pretty close to full range there already. I was prescribed more exercises for my shoulder, so I'm progressing. I'm now able to hold up to 5 lbs with my arm. I have rehab at noon today. I can't wait to perform these new exercises. I have a follow up appointment in 4 weeks. She said that I might have the green light to do more things with my arm. Like play basketball. I was shocked that I might be shooting hoops in 4 weeks. She said it'll be good rehab. The main thing holding me back right now is my deltoid muscle. That needed to be detached, and then reattached during surgery. It's still healing right now, and I don't have much strength in it right now. The weakness in my deltoid muscle makes it difficult to raise my arm. Lastly, my arm isn't really that sore now. I'm not taking the painkillers anymore. Just Advil when I need it.
Looking forward I got the OK to return to chemo on the 30th. Not looking forward to it, but it must be done. 6 more treatment, 18 more days, 3 more cycles, 3 more months, that's all that remains. I already did it once. I can do this again. Hopefully I can stay as healthy as I did the first time.
Have a Merry Christmas Everyone.
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