Post-dinner, I'm sitting in the family room with a glass of wine, listening to the soft shush-shush of the dishwasher. DH is upstairs in his comfy chair, and DS2 has moved his computer up to his room so he's not here, either.
My niece and nephew headed back to to New Orleans this morning after a really delightful visit, and DS1 is currently on his way home from a quick trip to California with some friends.
I feel very much like I'm rattling around here, but that's always the way it goes after visits. The visit was great for keeping my mind off the intense round of medical tests I had on Friday: brain MRI, CT scans of my thorax and head/neck, and a PET/CT as well. So far the results of the first two have come back completely clear, which is great, but it's of course the last two that are most dispositive. I am wondering what my new endocrinologist will say if the scans show something, or if they don't (which seems to me is more likely, even though my tumor marker is consistently detectable these days.)
I did a review here of how my cancer has been followed and these tests were all requested for me five years ago (five years!) when I had a similar, positive tumor marker + negative whole body scan, result, but my insurance company at the time (Cigna) denied every requested test. Those denials kept me on the same useless ultrasound/Thyrogen/whole body scan merry-go-round until now. Sheesh.
I'm still not expecting anything to show up. Or should I say hoping nothing will show up? What's worse? I don't know. I just don't want to be thrown back into any sort of treatment loop.
Good news is the pituitary adenoma appears to be stable, so brain surgery is not likely in my future. Totally not sarcastic: Yay! Technically I have to wait for the nurse to call me and tell me what the doctor wants me to do, which won't happen until the other two tests are posted. I can wait.
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