Friday, March 13, 2009

remission?

Dr. Klener worked his magic last week over at Homolka and arranged a PET/CT scan (the fancy nuclear one) for me this past Tuesday. Here are some of the highlights:

All tumors are showing “significant regression”: having shrunk to just over half their former sizes when compared to the last PET/CT in October;

while exhibiting “only minimal glucose consumption” = very little metabolic activity “that would testify to the presence of a viable neoplasm”; but

the pulmonary fibrosis (from the radiation) is worse (and will get worse, before and if it ever gets better) - seen above in the left lung (on right) as that nasty looking star wars starburst pattern of laser blast;

my gall bladder is still ceramic (from the chemotherapy);

and my waistband is, yet again, too tight.

I’m quite pleased with the results, as people generally don’t (actually pretty much never) get better from what I have. I’m not out of the woods yet, but think I found a path. I’m shooting for the ‘all clear’ on my next PET/CT in June, at which point, I will very grudgingly go down as a (very rare) positive statistic promoting the conventional therapies (chemo and radiation) that are the direct cause of all my current health problems. Fingers crossed ;-)

I saw my oncologist yesterday who was thrilled to the point of speechlessness and I’ll try to see my Chinese doctor next week so he can take some of the credit as well. I’ve spent over a year researching and using various therapies and supplements to beat this thing and will expose, expand and expound on each in future posts. I didn’t have the luxury or liberty of any ‘controls’ in this experiment: as time was considered short, I tried a lot of things concurrently, some intensively and others only sporadically.

But I’ll leave you with this ‘very distracting’ picture I took on Wednesday and got yelled at for at GlenGarry Glen Ross. Certain actors, apparently, can be thrown off their game by a little autofocus lamp:

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so happy to read this. Wow.
Talk to you soon.
Jon

Anonymous said...

That's great news Mike!!!!
Also: good time to quit smoking.
How are the kidneys ?
Is that Jiffy onstage?
Tim H.

Ingrid said...

Second the vote on the whole quitting smoking thing. There's dodging bullets, then there's just plain cocky.... And can we all get behind the fact that you're pretty high on the 'tempting fate' scale with alcohol consumption on TOP of chemo? Gall bladder? Did anyone think to check your liver as well?? I hate to raise this, but there was about a week in there in the middle where I MIGHT have stood a chance at keeping up with you (although at the time I thought it might be a tad excessive to raise it as a 'silver lining' kind of thing... ;-)

Thanks for this, Mike... and great shot. Obviously Jiffy's continued self-actualization will have to include tolerance of the paparazzi... you can work with them or ignore them, but they cannot be avoided.

Love you guys, glad all is going so well, hope to see you soon! xox.

Anonymous said...

Next time I will try to be in a more celebratory manner Mike (i.e. drunk at 4pm =))

Hooray Mikey!

Heart,
Shay

Anonymous said...

Great!!! Well even though "cures" have been simultaneously used I think you can surmise which one started showing the most results.

Well Jiff doesn't look thrown off his game.

I want those BA photos. Stay in the light. Ann

Anonymous said...

Good news Mike, this bud's for you. And great to hear that Jiffy is going great guns!

Anonymous said...

I'm speechless too!! Mazel tov! I hope it all continues in the same great direction.

(I *too* think you need to toss the cigs out asap)

Anonymous said...

Michael!!! This is very happy news!! Congratulations on bending "laws" of medicine--if anyone could find a way, I knew it would be you.

Big kisses all around (and yes, I'll put out this cigarette)...

jess rhino

chihuahua lady said...

body rock, shake your body to the music
that is great news mikey!!!
very happy about this progress.
can you use that picture as id?