Biopsy - A Success!

Ema had her biopsy yesterday, and I spoke with her orthopedic oncologist right after the operation. He said he is 95% - 99% sure that the bone he extracted was just that - bone, not tumor. We will make an appointment for two weeks from now so we can get the lab results, although I suspect his office will call us sooner if the news is anything other than good.

In order to take the bone biopsy the surgeon had to "re-use" the flap (skin graph), entering from her previous surgery site. She has a pressure bandage on, and there will be some discomfort, but the surgery itself was minimally invasive.

Next week - another chest CT scan! The fun just never seems to stop around here :)

Stay tuned. . .

~Tom

Biopsy Rescheduled to Thursday May 29th

That white area below the kneecap is the culprit. That's what's necessitated the biopsy tomorrow. The good news is that the area in question showed up after radiation treatment, and didn't grow at all between two MRIs - three months apart. That evidence, combined with what the latest PET scan revealed makes our oncologist fairly confident that this is some sort of bone scarring from surgery/radiation therapy and not an osteosarcoma or some other type of tumor.

The biopsy will determine for certain the nature of this anomaly. In the meantime, we hold on to what we can to help us feel as positive as possible about the outcome. Writing it down seems to help. Thanks for coming along for the ride. I'll keep y'all posted.

PET Scan is All Clear!

Just a quick post here (running out the door to dinner) to let you all know that Ema's PET scan came back all clear! She found out yesterday and we are both so very relieved.

She is going in for her biopsy next Friday to determine what's going on with her tibia, but her oncologist is optimistic. He said that the MRI showed no change from last time, and this PET scan, although it showed some activity in that region, didn't alarm him at all. Yay!

Sick Today. . .

Ema is sick today. She woke up with a fever and chills this morning, so I'm staying home from work today and keeping an eye on her. Sam doesn't go to school on Mondays, so I'm watching him as well.

It's interesting just how little a four-year-old understands about 'keeping quiet' when mom is trying to sleep. . .oh well.

I just got off the phone with Ema's oncology nurse who is phoning in an antibiotic prescription to the pharmacy. I'll head over there in an hour and pick it up. The nurse said to call back tomorrow morning if Ema still has a fever so we can bring her into the office.

I'll keep y'all posted on this.

PET Scan - Not Fun!

Ema had a PET scan on Thursday that took four and a half hours. The lab technician tried to hook up the I.V. for the contrast fluid several times, each one without any luck. Ema's veins have been so weakened by her previous chemotherapy 15 years ago, that she is considered a 'very hard stick' in phlebotomist's terms.

So, after an hour or so of being a human pin cushion, they decided to go ahead and use her medi-port. They wanted to avoid using the medi-port because those can sometimes give false-positive readings.

We should get the results back by the middle of next week, but we won't freak out if there are areas of concern. The false-positive possibility would then make us have to get yet another PET scan to test against. Fun stuff.

But, that being said, our spirits are high, and we are so looking forward to our oldest boy's 11th birthday party today at Ema's sister's house. Linda was so kind to open her doors to a dozen screaming tweens - thanks Linda!

~Tom

Long Term Plans

Ema and I have been talking about taking an Alaska cruise for years. It's interesting how this disease, which can be so destructive in so many ways, can also act as the catalyst for action when it comes to making our dreams come true.

Within the next month we'll be booking this cruise for summer 2009. Unlike any previous vacation planning, we are reading the cancellation policy very carefully. We are settling into a routine in which, at least for the next few years, we will be at the mercy of the results of quarterly CT Scans. This "inconvenience" is something we can live with, and just one way in which this disease has changed our lives.

It feels good though to make such long term plans. It helps us to feel normal again. Most people avoid using the word 'normal' when describing their lives as it usually equates to 'boring.' Right now - we yearn for normal, boring, and mundane. When you've been living in 'crisis mode' for nine months, 'normal 'sounds so darn good :)

The Oncologist's Opinion

This past Friday Ema was finally able to speak with her oncologist about her MRI. His words were encouraging. He said he examined the MRI and really thinks the bone anomaly is just scarring from the radiation treatment.

That is very good news, but we are still going forward with the biopsy on May 29th.

PET scan on Wednesday of this week should reveal more as well. Actually, God-willing, the PET should reveal NOTHING. Will keep you all posted.

A Trip to the Emergency Room - But Ema is Fine

For the past four days, Ema has had quite a bit of pain in her affected leg right above and to the inside of the kneecap. We both attributed it to walking around the OC swapmeet for a couple of hours on Sunday which represented the most walking she had done at one time in a while. But by Thursday evening when the pain wasn't going away, we stopped attributing it to sore muscles.

This painful area also was slightly discolored and was warm to the touch. I, being a knee-jerk hypochondriac with just enough medical knowledge to cause problems, assumed a femoral aneurysm or DVT (deep vein thrombosis). Those two ideas were enough for Ema to agree to call her doctor at 8:30 last night. The doctor-on-call suggested we go to our local hospital and have a sonogram (ultrasound) run on that leg to rule out any blood clots or other nasties.

We were in and out in just about two hours which ain't bad for an emergency room in a city of any size. No blood vessel trauma or anything else showed up on the sonogram. The doctor gave her a prescription for antibiotics because he suspects, with her compromised immune system, she might develop cellulitis, which is an infection in connective tissues under the skin.

Home at 11:00 on a school (work) night means I'm tired this morning. Buy hey - this isn't about me - right?!? Ema will rest today, keep the leg elevated and report any worsening of the affected area to her doctor, if needed.

Now, I'm off to work.

Ema's Update - May 6, 2008

Good news! After a long time waiting, many phone calls to the doctor's office being the squeaky wheel, we finally got word that there's no change from the MRI last week to the previous one a couple of months ago. This could very well mean that the anomaly in my leg isn't a tumor, but rather bone damage as is suspected. I'll have another scan (PET) next week and a biopsy at the end of the month, but we'll worry about those things as they come. To celebrate the news today we took the kids to Ruby's diner for milkshakes and burgers. It's important to celebrate every triumph we get.

~Ema

From Ema's personal diary - Looking back

October 7th, 2007

I felt good about attaining some little goals this weekend.

• I put up the Halloween decorations and they look nice.
• I took a shower.
• Tom took the kids and I shopping at Target. It was so great to be out in the world and buying things! Yay for retail therapy! I was almost in tears buying paper plates!

This weekend, the shopping trip - they were a little slice of normal and it was wonderful!!!

. . .I LOVE normal.

MRI is Done - Now Waiting for Results

Ema had her leg MRI yesterday, but the radiologist told her that it would be Friday, at the earliest, that results would be available for her doctor. She is seeing her oncologist today and getting blood tests. Hopefully her hematocrit (portion of her blood volume occupied by red blood cells) level is up from last week. We suspect it is as she's been eating iron-rich foods and feeling a little better each day.

There are still scary times like last night when she had a wave of sickness that she said felt just like the flu. Several hours of sleep proved helpful though as she was feeling better by 3:30 this morning. By the way, does anyone ever feel okay at 3:30 in the morning? I know I don't. Perhaps I should have waited until a little later to ask her. . .oh well.

I'll give an update later as to what her doctor said today.

~ Tom