Tuesday, October 17 was the appointment set up to meet with the radiation oncologist and her team. David was now back from NY so he could go with me to Mayo. Since I had to have a CT scan before the appointment and that was set for 7:30 am, we decided to stay in a hotel Monday night. And I decided we would stay at the Kahler since it is connected to the Mayo via Subway and Skyway. Emily agreed to come over to our house on Monday night and stay over to watch Max. She didn’t work on Tuesday so she could hang out with Max and work on her homework.
We decided to leave early on Monday so we could drive down along the Mississippi River, on the Wisconsin side and hopefully enjoy the Fall colors. It did not disappoint and when we stopped in Alma, we just missed a barge going through but then a riverboat came in to the lock. Always fun to watch the lock operation.
The CT scan went fine in the morning. It was of the chest area only because this type of sarcoma/tumor can metasisize to the lungs so they wanted to make sure that was not an issue. Thankfully the lungs were clear…only the scar tissue that was caused by one of the chemo drugs 15 years ago with the lymphoma.
We first met with Sarah, Dr. Wealliver’s Nurse Practionner. She was very helpful in answering all of our questions and explaining what the treatment plan would most likely entail. Then Dr. Welliver joined us and again reviewed what they would like to do for treatment. She asked if we had any special plans coming up that may impact the treatment plan. We told her about our 50th anniversary on November 17th….but more the 18th when we are planning a dinner with the kids/grandkids. So they both said ok we are going to make this work so we can get it done!! The plan was to start radiation on 10/30 and the last day would be 11/17. I would need to schedule another CT and MRI to prepare for radiation so we decided to stay another night and get this all done the next day. Emily was able to stay at our house another night to watch Max so the timing worked out perfectly.
The CT scan was not just a scan, but also planning for the radiation including 3 small dot tattoos so they know exactly where to point the radiation. They also formed a holder for my legs, that was like a cast, only open, so my legs were in the same position every time the radiation was done. And also to make sure that the un-tumor leg would be out of the way. They used that same cast/cushion/pillow during the MRI to generate some detailed scans to confirm the radiation plans. MRI’s are not too bad, just noisy, and usually they let you listen to music using headphones. This one they use ear plugs and headphones, but no music. They have determined that people tend to “dance” if music is on and for this MRI it is very important to keep completely still. So you can somewhat hear the “banging” of the MRI noise, but it is doable. I can see that someone that suffers from claustrophobia would have more issues that just the noise from the MRI.
MRI Results
Again, I got an email indicating that the MRI results were in. With this the Findings were: “Prominent left inguinal lymph node” which the doctor indicated could be because of an infection or inflammation or could also be due to the current tumor. So this Friday it is back to Mayo for now a PET/CT scan to evaluate this and determine if a biopsy of this lymph node is needed. The doctor wanted to get it in before radiation starts so I am hoping this will not impact the radiation schedule and the reservation of our AirBNB. 🙂
Dandy Ventures 