Vultures retreat a bit

The bone scan and the CAT scan that the urologist ordered to evaluate whether my prostate cancer had extended beyond the prostate gland itself were completed a few days ago. At the time, the bone scan technician had worried me by wondering if I had arthritis or something. What he was sort of saying, I was thinking, was that he was seeing hot spots on my bone scan, and such hot spots could represent cancer spreading to the bone if there were no other explanation. I could feel the vultures circling.

The people doing the scans told me that the results would be to my doctor’s office in a few days. Next week at latest. All this waiting is driving me nuts. But, what is the alternative?

So the day after the scan I got a message on my cell from my urologist’s office. This time it was not the doc on the phone, but his nurse. Her message was that I should call back about the recent tests. But, as before, the urology office closes its phones at 4 PM and the answering service won’t take messages. No news.

The next morning I called the nurse back. Reached her voice mail. Said I was returning her call and I’d try again in the afternoon. My work life is sometimes full of meetings. This was such a day. But there was a break around 3 PM. And I found a new message on my cell. The nurse had called back, apologized for the phone tag, and asked if it would be OK to leave a message about the results on the cell phone. I called back. I got her voice mail again. I left a message saying it would be fine to leave a detailed message on my cell. Then I went to my next meeting which would not be over until 4:30. I hoped she’d call and leave a message with the results. Why don't these people use email? When my meeting was over I checked my cell again. No new messages. I can't be too surprised. It’s Friday. The office is closing for the weekend, if not closed already. When am I going to get this information?!

Oh well. My work day is over. The week is over. I’m tired from getting in to work early to make up time for time I’m away for medical visits. I’m on the little bus with the challenged suspension that I take daily to cover most of the distance between work and home. Actually, this particular day, the bus was replaced with a newer one, with somewhat better springs and shocks. Much more comfortable. I’m leaning back to get some sleep. At 4:45 my cell rings! Yes, it’s the nurse, and she simply wants to tell me that both the bone scan and the CAT scan came back normal. No sign in either of them of spreading cancer!!! I thanked her for taking the time to call. Particularly at the end of their week. I was very grateful. And it was good news. I was feeling very good.

I’d like to tell my wife, but she was shopping, so I waited until we both got home. As soon as we were together I told her about the call. Told her the good news. No sign of cancer spread (so far). She probed me a bit more. I think she was wondering if I was minimizing things. But I assured her it was a straight up negative exam, so far as I knew, and that, at least from the viewpoint of these tests, there was no evidence of cancer spread. We hugged. We were both very relieved.

In fact, though, I am the one who is confused. No evident spread is a good thing, meaning that surgery alone might be enough to treat the problem. But even surgery will take time to do, and to recover from. And there may be lasting, unpleasant side effects. So I'm relieved that a very bad thing may not have happened. Instead, just a bad thing. So I’m confused by options. By potential options. By who knows what? By uncertainty.

But, whoa! I’m way ahead of myself and I need to relax and just take the good news as it was delivered, and not spend a lot of time trying to interpret it. This coming Wednesday the consultation at the NIH is scheduled. And a month or so after that, the transrectal MRI, the final imaging procedure to estimate whether the cancer has spread in the very local area of the prostate. It will be then, and not sooner, that we will have all the available information for devising a plan forward. In the meantime, the weather is beautiful fall weather. Fluffy white clouds, reasonable temperatures. I think that while my wife is off with girlfriends at lunch on Saturday that I’ll get on my bike and try to hunt down some more geocaches! Wish me luck!

Comments

So thankful for good news! Enjoy the weekend and just take this all one step at a time!
 
Oh man! Celebrate every bit of good news you get!! This is great ... not the full picture ... but great nonetheless. Hope you had good luck with those geocaches too.
 
Thanks for the good wishes. I just hope the rest of the tests are as positive. I'll even be happy with the probe up the ass for 40 minutes test if it comes out negative! That's a few weeks off.

Got snookered on the geocahes -- found only 1 of 3. But I'm getting some help from a friend on one of them, so I'll get them eventually. I can't walk away from the challenge.
 
good news is great,give thanks for it. you have been in my thoughts and prayers since yesterday when i got the news from you. Have a great day hunting what? t9
 

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