Some Girls Prefer Carnations: It's that time again

Sunday, January 22, 2012

It's that time again

Once again, just around the corner on Thursday, is my next PET scan. These things seem to come around sooner and sooner every time, but no, they're only every three months. Only.

I think the interval between PET scans seems shorter now because I have my health. I am no longer measuring my life by the next PET scan. It's hard to believe that there ever was a time when I measured my life by the next PET scan, but there was and I did. I remember thinking that the next PET scan would mark the end of chemotherapy, or the end of radiation, or the end of herceptin treatments. Now it's a disconnected PET scan among research publications, folding laundry, and putting together princess puzzles. It seems unrelated to life as I know it, and it reminds me of the life that I don't want to know again.

There's something to be said for, "What you don't know won't hurt you." Don't get me wrong, I'm a proponent of Knowledge is Power, and obviously unknown cancer cells in your body are exactly what WILL hurt you. But regarding the emotional side of coping with cancer, it certainly seems easier to not know about it. Knowing about it means that there will be long periods of dread and pain. PET scans are near the epicenter of that dread.

The PET scan itself is relatively painless (4-hour fast, 2 pokes, 1 hour rest, 0.25 hour scan), but the dread of the results is formidable. Questions of, "Do I have cancer", "Has the cancer spread?", and "Has the cancer come back?" plague the mind until the moment in which the doctor at last pours over the lengthy results with you. And even with good news the relief is not complete, at least not for me, the girl who has never scanned clean. First it was the inflammatory breast cancer, then it was my T9 vertebral body (didn't turn out to be cancer, thankfully, but the dread between the PET scan and the biopsy was unspeakable), and two consecutive scans with tiny nodes on my lungs (too small to biopsy, yay?). So I rejoice in a mediocre sort of way and try to forget about the decent but not good news until the next PET scan. Which is upon us.

Lung nodes, you've got to go away. I appreciate that you don't get any bigger, but you inhibit my ability to release my inhibitions. Let's end this relationship, shall we? Out, damn'd spots!

6 comments:

NormJanuary 22, 2012 at 1:31 PM
"Lung nodes, you are out of my phone and out of my life." Feel free to use my favorite break up speech on those nasty nodes.
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BeckyJanuary 22, 2012 at 9:19 PM
I'm pretty sure that the latest PET scans will show a clean bill of health - completely clean - no more lung nodes at all.

Because I said so.

And what I say, totally goes.
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Simply BikeJanuary 23, 2012 at 8:43 PM
Good luck on Thursday! And oooh, good use of the Macbeth quote at the end there :)

S.
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LoriJanuary 24, 2012 at 7:03 PM
Vacillating between:

Closing my eyes, fingers in my ears, singing la la la la la la - wishing for the best OR
Extremely loud and bawdy swear words to scare anything we don't want OR
Just breathing deep, basking in the amazingness of all that is our life.

And, of course, I have had my fingers crossed since reading this post . . .
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MarthaJanuary 25, 2012 at 1:42 PM
Cancer can suck it.
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FrankJanuary 25, 2012 at 6:23 PM
What Martha said. Wishing you an awesome Thursday. And a lovely Wednesday evening until then.
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REMARKABLE CREATURES by Tracy Chevalier "My life led up to that moment, then led away again, like the tide making its highest mark on the beach and then retreating."
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THE THIEF OF ALWAYS by Clive Barker "Was there some way...to take back the stolen years, and live them here, with the people who loved him, and whom he loved dearly in return?"
CUTTING FOR STONE by Abraham Verghese "The world turns on our every action, and our every omission, whether we know it or not." Best book I've read in a year

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Sunday, January 22, 2012

It's that time again

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