Through the Cracks

My oncology nurse told me someone would call me to follow up after my last chemotherapy (April 1). It seemed odd to me that no one had scheduled a CT scan or any follow up by now, so I phoned the USS Northwestern to talk to my oncologist's physician assistant. She informed me that the protocol for the clinical trial I am in calls for a CT scan three weeks after my last chemo, which means next Tuesday, April 22. She seemed surprised that this had not been scheduled.

Just received a call from the "patient care" person who will be scheduling these appointments for me. Tune in next week for results of scan, which I guess will determine what, if anything, happens next. My understanding is that they expect to see shrinkage in the tumors, along with residual scar tissue, and that we will practice "watchful waiting" to see if there's any growth in the scar tissue, which would indicate that it is cancerous. Seems to me at some point I should get an MRI and PET scan, too, but they didn't mention anything about that, so I will ask next Tuesday. The cancer I have likes to metastasize, and two favorite sites are the brain and the bones. The MRI and PET scan, I believe, looks for cancer in those places. The protocol calls for follow up blood tests and CTs of the chest every three months for two years.

I am slowly beginning to feel better, that is, I guess, to recover from the side effects of chemotherapy. I sure hope I won't need any more of that stuff. It is not fun.