These images are a little fuzzy, but you should be able to figure them out. Both scans are 3D frontal views from my head to my knees.
The first image is the PET scan from Sept 19th. The bright white areas are cancerous. As you can see, there are quite a lot of bright spots along my spine, with some larger areas near my heart. This image is a little misleading because it appears that I have some quite large masses, but in actuality, since this is a 3D image, some lymph nodes are stacked on top of one another making them look like one large clump. In the individual slices of the PET scan my doctor was able to measure the sizes of the lymph nodes and the largest clump was a little more than 5 centimeters.
The second image is the PET scan from Oct 29th. As you can see, almost all of the bright spots are gone along my spine. You should also notice that my skeleton is much brighter in this image. This is due to the production of blood cells, which attracts the radioactive isotope that in injected for the PET scan, and causes the brightness in the image. My bones have been in high blood cell production since starting chemo. I am not sure what is the cause of the bright spots that are almost symmetrical about my spine in this image. They don’t appear in the first image, so I don’t think it is cancer, but I don’t know what it is. I will have to ask my doctor.
This is a great visual that shows how effective my chemo has been.
2 comments:
That is awesome! Congratulations! I can't even express how elated I am to hear that your body is responding correctly to the chemicals that are being injected. Thank God! He made some pretty intelligent people to come up with these treatments.
Now we just need to get to the end of treatment so we can PARTAY!!!
Chris keep up the great spirit! You are doing wonderful. By the way I am Amy's wonderful mother-in-law. I'm sure she has said how great I am! :) If not let me know and I will take back her Christmas present!! Remember to keep smiling
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