another wall...

[madubois63]

On one hand, yesterday was my one year birthday/anniversary of the bone marrow transplant. I am very happy to be here and to have the transplant be considered a success. On the other hand, I received my reports back from my bone and PET scan. The bone scan is clean - yeah!! But, the PET showed 2 new spots on my right lung that are highly consistant with malignancy. The spots are 1.4 x 1.4 cm and 2.9 x 2.6. I have already seen my leukemia onc and bc onc. Tomorrow, I will see my thoracic surgeon to schedule a biopsy. The surgeon will also drain the plural effusion in my right lung that has gotten bigger. I've lived with it, and it hasn't been a problem; but I know he will want to drain and seal the lung again. I have refused to have it drained over the last 3 years (since the first time it was drained/sealed) because they have to collapse the lung. My body has been ravaged enough, and I did not want to chance infection or damaging the lung even further. Besides mets (probable), I've been told the spots could be from an infection (please), a new cancer (ugh - God forbid) or scar (not likely). If it is bc mets, my bc onc will treat me with hormonals until that doesn't work anymore, then go to chemo. If all else fails, my leukemia onc suggested giving me host verses graft disease (again) so that it will become host verses disease and my new immune system will kill off the bc. This can be very dangerous and kill me - great option huh?? So what have I learned this week?? My leukemia onc is very gloom and doom (but I knew that already), but he is smart and thinking ahead. My bc onc and nurse practitioner are the greatest people in the world. They love me and are both upset but not freaking out over this. My onc didn't want to tell me...he says if this is bc then there are plenty of treatment plans to choose from. I have the best family and friends a person can ask for. My friend Liz is just awesome. I don't know if I would have survived without her these past 3 years. So, once again I ask for your prayers. I'll know when the biopsy will be done tomorrow. It may be out-patient (easy), or in-patient (hard). We all know it will be the latter. I usually don't do things the easy way...