The Results are In

Monday was what shall henceforth be referred to as Scanfest.  It involved 2 hours of prep, 2 hours of scans and 2 days of worry. Lily impressed us by exhibiting about a quarter of the stress level I felt. Phil offered to take her so I could clean. Basically, so he could read Sports Illustrated in quiet for a couple of hours. He's seen me at these things and realized that I could better channel my nervous energy around the house as opposed to wearing a new path in the halls of radiology. I refuse to leave the waiting area. What if she needs me? Instead, it is much more productive for me to remove all the drawers in the kitchen- empty and clean their contents.  One would suppose that simply doing routine cleaning would suffice, but one would be wrong. Such routine work would leave portions of the conscious mind available to wander to what ifs.  Doing a spring cleaning maneuver such as total drawer removal in conjunction with keeping Bella entertained definitely passes time most efficiently.

Lily did much better with the anesthesia this time. We didn't super stress dose her with steroids- because Phil and I both suspected this was one of the main causes of her post sedation rages. It worked. She woke up happy. It could have been that she was sedated so much longer this time, that the meds were able to wear off a little better, but we shall see. Unfortunately this will not be our last set of scans. I am hoping to try it without sedation soon to alleviate some of the levels of nasty meds we keep pumping into her.

She had a full body MRI series with contrast- brain, spine, everything. She then had her routine abdominal CT series.  The doc called Phil last night and reported that he went over the scans with the radiologist and the only oddity that they could find was that she was missing an adrenal gland. Phil and I said the same thing....just one?  She had the right one surgically removed- and the left one had essentially disappeared as of the last scan due to chemo. There was not much to it, but they could see it.  Another one of those double edged swords...if it grows back- she may not have to be on as high doses of maintenance steroids.  But if it grows back, other things might as well.  But that is something we will just wait and see. The good news is that for now, her scans are clean.  We carry on. 

Specifically I focus on preparing for the dozen or so little monkeys who will invade my home Saturday for the big birthday celebration! Someday I will get more pictures downloaded!