PET scan results - "very good"

After a bit of chaos (as I had feared somebody had screwed up with the scheduling), we were able to meet with my doctor right before I got chemo (I had the bags hooked up but they hadn't turned the valve yet). I don't think Mathilde slept more that a few hours last night, so it was a great relief to both of us when he said the results were "very good". The swollen nodes in my armpit as basically gone. The nodes in my chest, which were about 14 cm wide before I started treatment are now down to 7 cm. The doctor said they really can't get much smaller than that in this amount of time. 

Even better than that, the PET scan showed almost no activity (I guess that would be uptake). He said there is small spot on my left lung, but they think that is most likely tissue recovering from the invasion of the lymph nodes (the swollen nodes were pressing my left lung, and an early scan showed I had liquid in my lung).  So, in there opinion, I am essentially "PET negative".

We asked if that meant the cancer was gone, and he said no. If you looked in a microscope, there certainly be individual cancer cells, and that is what the rest of the treatment is supposed to take care of.  But the good news is the cancer has knocked down so much so that images of my chest no loner look like a rorschach test.  All and all, he was very positive about the results of the test. And so are we! 

Chemo sucks, but it works.