Happy New Year blog readers! Can't believe it's 2020. I remember watching a show called 'Beyond 2000’ as a kid and thinking that 2000 was so far into the future, and suddenly it's 20 years beyond that.
I've never had a totally 'clear' PET scan, and the latest result is no exception, but on the whole I'm pretty happy with the December scan result.
The main areas of concern - my bowel and liver - all showed up totally clear. This is actually the first scan that didn't at least show some kind of issue in the abdomen - which is exciting. My liver has completely regrown after the January resection (when they took 1/2 out for the second time), in fact it's massive on the scan. Apparently when they cut some of your liver out it overcompensates when it regrows, and because I've now had two resections I guess mine is getting bigger and bigger !
Now the downer. They did find a suspicious lymph node in my neck and they want me to return for another full PET scan in 3 months, rather than waiting 6 months. This would obviously be very concerning if it turns out to be a legitimate issue, however my Oncologist thinks this is most likely just unrelated inflammation being picked up by the scan, just because of where this particular node is located. Anyway, in my mind I've got another 3 months of clear runway until March.
I've been slowly gaining weight - which for most cancer patients is a sign of good health, but in my case I'm just getting fat. I find this super embarrassing. There aren't many things I can control to reduce my risk of recurrence - really just three: (1) diet (2) exercise (3) stress. I'm not too bad on the diet - we've pretty much eliminated red meat from our diet, and I hardly ever drink alcohol now, but I could absolutely be eating better. And I'm failing to nail exercise given the usual tension between commuting, family time and work. You would think that likely death was enough incentive for me to get into shape on these fronts, but I'm still shit. So, a big goal for the next few months is to turn this around. Things are also getting busier at work, and I have a tendency to quickly let that become all consuming and end up stressing a little too much, so second thing to watch is those stress levels as I've read a lot about the relationship between stress related hormones as cancer.
Hoping for some rain because our little urban 'farm' is dying. Excited about a trip to Melbourne tomorrow to watch Harry Potter and the Cursed Child with Ada, my 7 year old. This was her Christmas present and a reward for finishing all the books. Looking forward to spending the weekend with her, just her and I.
Otherwise, nothing else to report. Have a great start to 2020 everyone.