Contradicting Information
Yesterday was a VERY long day at Stanford. I got there at 9:45am for my first appointment with radiology oncology and didn’t get seen until 12:30pm. Fortunately I had a very good book to read and Chris had his laptop to do some work. I must have met with the radiology doctor for 10 minutes before I was off to my next appointment with the pulmonary specialist. After that I had just 5 minutes to get back to radiology for my PET/CT scan. I thought that’s all that I would be having done, but as it turns out they also made my body mold and took some pictures of my old tattoos and past treatment areas. It was about 4pm by the time that was all done with (and I finally got to eat something). Then I had to go have some labs drawn for my bronchoscopy today. We finally left Stanford around 5pm!
We received a lot of contradicting news from the doctors we saw yesterday. The radiology oncologist told us that he wasn’t sure whether I would be able to have more radiation to my lung. Even though that wasn’t exactly the area that was hit before, he needs to see the results of the PET first to determine if they will be able to come up with a safe treatment. He also said there was an additional area of growth (next to the mediastinal mass on my chest), but they weren’t sure if it was new growth or an expansion from the collapsed area of the lung. I asked when we would be able to start treatment if I could receive more radiation and he said as soon as possible.
The pulmonary specialist was one of the nicest doctor’s I have ever met. He talked about what my oncologist wanted me to have done and went over my CT results from last week in detail (in addition to showing them to us on the computer). He had a completely different opinion on the area of my lung. He didn’t feel that there was any collapsing of my lung, but rather that it was full of substance, most likely disease. The area that he showed us on the screen was about half of my lung which I was very surprised to see. He also didn’t feel it was necessary for me to have a bronchoscopy done, but wanted to speak with my oncologist about it. He spoke with her and came back and decided that it should be done. The bronchoscopy would involve getting some tissue/cells samples from my lung. He explained that I would probably be in pain for the next few days and may even cough up some blood. The procedure was scheduled for 8am this morning.
This morning I showed up at 7am and by 8am I was in the procedure room. I was given some drug in the Valium family to keep me from remembering anything and I was given a nice big dose of Fentanyl to sedate me. I don’t remember anything about the procedure or how I got home. Most of the late morning/early afternoon I spent sleeping. Apparently the pulmonary doctor told Chris that the procedure went very well and that I had a lot of puss in my lungs, which he removed. He said this was probably an indication that I have some type of infection in there. It will probably be a few days before we get the full results from all the samples that they took.
This afternoon I received a call from my oncologist’s assistant that she wants to see me tomorrow to discuss further treatment. I’m hoping that doesn’t mean I won’t be able to receive radiation. I’m hoping to go into work tomorrow morning and go to my appointment in the afternoon.
We received a lot of contradicting news from the doctors we saw yesterday. The radiology oncologist told us that he wasn’t sure whether I would be able to have more radiation to my lung. Even though that wasn’t exactly the area that was hit before, he needs to see the results of the PET first to determine if they will be able to come up with a safe treatment. He also said there was an additional area of growth (next to the mediastinal mass on my chest), but they weren’t sure if it was new growth or an expansion from the collapsed area of the lung. I asked when we would be able to start treatment if I could receive more radiation and he said as soon as possible.
The pulmonary specialist was one of the nicest doctor’s I have ever met. He talked about what my oncologist wanted me to have done and went over my CT results from last week in detail (in addition to showing them to us on the computer). He had a completely different opinion on the area of my lung. He didn’t feel that there was any collapsing of my lung, but rather that it was full of substance, most likely disease. The area that he showed us on the screen was about half of my lung which I was very surprised to see. He also didn’t feel it was necessary for me to have a bronchoscopy done, but wanted to speak with my oncologist about it. He spoke with her and came back and decided that it should be done. The bronchoscopy would involve getting some tissue/cells samples from my lung. He explained that I would probably be in pain for the next few days and may even cough up some blood. The procedure was scheduled for 8am this morning.
This morning I showed up at 7am and by 8am I was in the procedure room. I was given some drug in the Valium family to keep me from remembering anything and I was given a nice big dose of Fentanyl to sedate me. I don’t remember anything about the procedure or how I got home. Most of the late morning/early afternoon I spent sleeping. Apparently the pulmonary doctor told Chris that the procedure went very well and that I had a lot of puss in my lungs, which he removed. He said this was probably an indication that I have some type of infection in there. It will probably be a few days before we get the full results from all the samples that they took.
This afternoon I received a call from my oncologist’s assistant that she wants to see me tomorrow to discuss further treatment. I’m hoping that doesn’t mean I won’t be able to receive radiation. I’m hoping to go into work tomorrow morning and go to my appointment in the afternoon.
posted by Erika @ 4:59 PM
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