A serving of good news

 This isn't the post that's been rattling around in my head for awhile, but since everyone enjoys good news, *spoiler alert* it doesn't appear the cancer has spread. 😁

Tuesday was my back-to-back MRIs to investigate the spots that lit up on my PET scan. For those of you new to the party, in addition to the spot in my right axilla /armpit lighting up, a spot on my thoracic spine #10 and my abdominal adrenals, which sit above your kidneys, also were bright. 

The adrenals' results came in on Thursday as "no distinctive mass on right or left side" and were declared "good" as in "no cancer." Why were they bright then? Since they are hormone-driven glands, it could be several things. I asked if it was perimenopause and the nurse who was giving me the results said she did ask if it was age related, but there was no apparent clear answer. Bottom line- no cancer.

The spinal results came in Friday- which is mind-boggling as I was physically in the machine within the same hour for these two tests but whatever- and was also good news. No spot on the bone, meaning no cancer mass, though now T6 and T7 also lit up as having something degenerative going on, possibly arthritis. Meh. Not bothering me. Noted.

In addition, they saw "something" in my lumbar area which looks to be a(?) dural ectasia. I don't know if it's a single area or the whole thing or what exactly, but I still haven't learned my lesson and looked it up to discover that dural ectasia is an enlarging or widening of the dural sac which surrounds the spinal cord. It can cause back pain -aha!- and leg weakness. The dural sac provides nutrients and buoyancy to your spinal cord and is the sheath of spinal fluid. Thank you, Wikipedia. Fascinating! So maybe it's not arthritis in my lower back and that's why it didn't light up on the PET scan as inflammation. (This is all me thinking out loud.) Something to be aware of, I suppose. Bottom line: also no cancer in my bones. Yippie!

So those results were being sent straight to my Dr A in the city in addition to my previous scans. My oncologist here is going to talk with her and set up a plan for what's next. As far as Myself-the-layperson can tell, I only have the one spot in my right armpit area and nothing has spread elsewhere. In theory, that should mean surgery to remove it and then I'd once again be NED- no evidence of disease. I'm sure there will still be the hormone therapy after that, along with a talk about whether my ovaries should come out or not, but I'm wondering if there will be chemo in addition since it's now HER2- or if it won't be needed because it is isolated. We will just have to see what the doctors decide. I'm going to try to stay away from the endless scrolling of search engine results for drugs and treatments and scaring myself silly with survival rates when I have no idea what my professionals might recommend for this exact body of mine. 

In the meantime, y'all can focus on the "woohoo, no cancer spread" part! Thank you for the prayers and goodies and endless support, as ever. You all are the BEST. 🍦🍧🍨