Message From Glentunnel

Thanks to all who have reminded me that I have not posted an update for a few days, it does make me feel a bit special and the effort of updating the blog more worthwhile.  However my main objective of writing this was to act as a journal that I can look back on, if it informs and helps others facing the same challenges then that is a bonus.

The past few days since Monday have been good, with every day better.  I have felt pretty damn good since Tuesday, way better than I had expected, but I do have problems with energy.   Yesterday I was able to be at work from about 8:30 until 4:30, from today I likely would be back to my normal work day, beginning at 7:30 AM.  However I took annual leave today to take an extended break in our caravan in Glentunnel, next Monday is a public holiday in New Zealand.

Getting back to work has proved to be a rather interesting experience, at least for me.  Because I know that I am going to be away from work, and I really don't know what the future holds, I have been very focused and have prioritised based on what I can do to really make a difference.  The results have been very good from my perspective, I seem to be working in much the same way as I used to several years ago and sailing over the top of delays and anything that disrupts.  Not sure if others around me feel as good about it though.

The MRI scan was interesting, not quite as I had expected.  The actual scanning process took longer than I had expected, I was "in the tube" for about 45 minutes in total for the main scanning.  The other thing I had not expected was the way the I was moved back and forward during the scan to centre the specific lesions under the scan, unlike the CT scan which is pretty much a one pass activity.  The scanning was in two stages, most of the time was taken with the back and forward process, and I had to hold my breath during many the actual MRI processes.  There were several of 20 seconds each, for me at least, 20 seconds is a long time to hold my breath.  Good practice for working and listening, I guess.

The next stage was to inject a tracer and do about a 5 minute rescan.  Then 2 hours later, repeat the process.  The objective was to determine if the small lesions that had shown up in the PET scan were cancer or not.  If not, the cells were likely to be a benign lesion of some sort, which would have compromised liver cells which would not process the tracer in the two hours so still show up after 2 hours.  If they were cancer mets the cells would be active and process the tracer and not show up in the same way.  I expect to get the results of this scan during my next chemo session next Wednesday.

So looking forward to a quiet weekend, among friends if we choose to socialise, or much reading and sleeping.