Day 100 – Saturday (12/01/18)

Next blog update will be posted by Saturday, December 8th, at midnight.

Hello again everyone.  Another week is in the books.  8 down, 10 to go.  It is DAY 100!!!!!  I remember when I was in elementary school, the 100th day of school was a big deal.  We would make cheerio necklace’s with 100 cheerio’s.  We would count and roll 100 pennies.  We put 100 gumballs on a paper plate, and make a gumball machine out of them.  So, what am I doing for my 100th day celebration?  Typing a blog, and later we are having family movie night and we are going to watch Home Alone.  Haha.  Yeah, some of us are real party machines ;)

Health update:  My PET scan results actually posted to my account this week, and I was able to read through them.  Let me put some numbers to the picture I posted on the Day 86 post.  It was pretty clear the improvement just from the picture, but numbers sometimes can help as well.  Lets start with size.  The original size noted was 7 x 16.1 cm.  The current size is now 4.4 x 9.6 cm.  We are missing a dimension to get the volume, but just from an area stand-point, these numbers represent a 62.52% reduction.  And that is after just 2 treatments!  The next set of numbers that tell the story are called “SUV” or “Standard Uptake Value”.  This is a number that is assigned to how much of the test fluid was absorbed by the cells during the test… which basically tells us how “active” or “alive” the cancer is.  The original scan at the beginning had a SUV of 29.6.  Today, the SUV is only 5.4.  A 81.76 reduction in activity.  So in summary, we are definitely shrinking and killing Blobby.  Now, lets put that spot in my stomach they were seeing in perspective.  I don’t have dimensions on it, but the SUV value was only a 4.6.  Unfortunately, they did not record an SUV value in the original scan, so we don’t have a point of reference.  All they were able to say was that “at 4.6, it appears less intense then the first scan”.  This gives me some hope that this is also related to the lymphoma, and it will disappear with Blobby over the remaining cycles.  I’ll keep praying that on the next scan in February, it is simply gone.

The next important date is this coming Thursday, 12/6.  This is when I will receive my 4th round of chemo.  My son has another foot x-ray tomorrow, and hopefully will be released to full activities.

Dear heavenly Father, thank You for another great week!  I didn’t know exactly how everything would play out 100 days ago, when I was told I had a mass in my chest.  But looking back, I can see you working through the entire process, and helping me every step of the way.  I pray for Your continued strength, blessings, and encouragement, which You have provided through friends, family, the church, neighbors, etc.  I truly am lucky to have so many people that care about me.  Please help chemo this Thursday to go smoothly.  Amen.