Nov 10 2016 - Visiting the Oncologist.

Yesterday I did a blood test.
Then, I did X-rays of the chest and abdomen.

I fasted last night, and today I did a sonogram of the chest and abdomen.
The sonogram lady was cute. She measured all my organs, and checked for tumors.

Then I ate a huge breakfast, and read my book.
Then I went to the hospice. They have a good used book store, and lots of cheap "junk". I bought a book and 2 steak knives.

Then I went to the local library. I have not been in there for 10 years. It was so empty. They had one computer for people to use, but it was "un-serviceable".
I sat and read about Windjammers. Big old sailing ships. Cool things. The big ones had 1.7 acres (.68 hectors) of sails.

When leaving the Library a woman and daughter came up to me and asked if I could explain to them how the prosthetic leg works. I love talking about my leg, so I chatted till they kept saying goodbye over and over. :-)

Then I went for my appointment with the Oncologist lady. She looked at the X-rays, blood test, and sonogram. Then said that there is absolutely no indications that I have, or ever had cancer. She said that I am in remission. That is the first time she has used that word. She then cautioned me that AngioSarcoma is a sneaky cancer, so I am best to be vigilant and a little paranoid.
She then looked at my foot and leg. She said that it is swollen and the toenails are falling off. Duh!
She then said that she thinks is more likely from the Toxal chemo than from diabetes or cancer. She said that AngioSarcoma likes to grow in stressed parts of the body, so I should work at keeping the inflammation down in the foot and leg, with massage or compression stockings.

Then I went home. The rainbow socket worked great. At the oncologist my stump started hurting up near the groin, but when I inflated the air bladders, my  weight was distributed different, and I made it home with no problems. This rainbow socket is not very comfortable, but it doesn't hurt.

With all the oncology out of the way, I can start packing seriously. This time next week I should be in the RV watching bears with my Florida buddy. :-)
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The U.S. elections are over. HRC lost. I think America dodged a bullet there.
Most people I talked to didn't vote "FOR" Trump. They voted against the high debt, against big government, against the corrupt politicians (that is called a redundancy), against slack immigration policy, and against silly wars.
If anyone can sort out the U.S. finances, it should be Trump.
I like that he is a corporate negotiator, and may prevent hot wars by negotiation, I just hope he doesn't create trade wars.
Good Luck America.
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April 13 2016 - Second PET Scan results

09:00
A slow morning. Nothing planned till my Oncologist appointment at 14:15.

I have looked closely at the PET scan pictures, and it all looks clean from a tumor point of view. Of course, I don't know anything about the subtleties of reading a PET scan.
The area of my stump end shows as bright yellow, which is indicative of inflammation and excessive blood flow, but I would expect that. I'll see what the Oncologist says.

15:30
We are back home from the Oncologist. She says I appear free of any active malignancy.

The conclusions on the reports say:
"There is no scintigraphic evidence of residual metabolically active malignancy on these images."
"No hypermetabolic activity in keeping with an active malignant process."
"No signs of local recurrence or distant metastases."

With respect to the possible damage from the chemo treatments:
"Bone marrow uptake appears fairly homogeneous throughout with no focal FDG avid lesions visualized."

So all is good news. Next time with the Oncologist will be in 3 months when I have another blood test, and see her again.

Here are some of the latest PET pictures. (The previous PET scan pictures can be seen on my Day 40 blog.)

You can see here the inflammation (shown by the yellow) on the end of the stump bone from wearing the prosthetic leg.




















Here is a picture of the legs showing no bad areas except end of the stump, and the ankle area of my right leg. This is caused by the Cymbalta causing cracked, dry skin, and swelling to my extremities.

This picture is cool because it shows the area in my mouth where I bit my tongue that morning. The PET scan interpreter said that the slight increased blood flow to both shoulders was probably caused by the use of crutches that day.
And for all my "friends"...I now have proof that my heart and brain are normal.
Maddie says it shows the absence of a brain, but then she ALSO doesn't know anything about the subtleties of reading a PET scan.

In this one you can see the missing lumbar disc between L4 and L5, and the skinny disc between L5 and L6. Also note the lack of yellow dots indicating tumors.

Because the radioactive chemical is absorbed by the brain, heart, and bladder wall, PET scans are seldom used to diagnose in those areas.
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Maddie's car got a bump (not her fault) and the bodyshop/panel beaters did not reconnect the hoses properly, so the engine overheated. The insurance has now said that the car is totaled, and will payout cash.
Now we are once again again car shopping.
Maddie has fallen in love with a 2006 Mercedes A170. The dealer is bringing it by tomorrow morning so she can drive it all around the neighborhood.
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Day 95 - Strange news from the Doctor.

I did not sleep all that well. Actually I slept well from 1:30 til 05:30. Not enough.
 The guy that was supposed to come by and quote on the shower mods never came. So typical South African.

My hair is growing back, but it is white.

 Maddie drove us to the Doctor and Wound Care Lady a bit early. I had a fruit salad at the small restaurant.

At the Doctor's office, the Wound Care Lady took off the bandages, and the stump looks very good. No redness anywhere. The Doctor came and looked at it and was pleased.

Then the Doctor talked about the histopathy report. Histopathy is like an autopsy, except it is not on a dead guy, but on a removed part of a living guy.
The histopathy report on the removed leg is all big Doctor words. The last sentence of the report was the shocker.

" There was no evidence of residual angiosarcoma within the tissue examined."

At first this sounded like good news, then I remembered the many times the surgeon and the oncologist told me that chemo will NOT kill angiosarcoma tumors.
If there is no residual angiosarcoma, then there never was any angiosarcoma.

The original biopsy report said there was angiosarcoma.
The PET scan report said there was angiosarcoma.
The histopathy report says there is no evidence of residual angiosarcoma.
Chemo does not kill angiosarcoma.

Now I ask...Was there ever any angiosarcoma? If so, then how did it disappear? If not, then why am I scheduled for chemo?

As usual, more questions than answers.

The car guy says we should be able to collect the car tomorrow afternoon.

This afternoon, I crutched 500 meters. It took 21 minutes. I was exhausted. I really need a shower. I don't know how long it has been since I have had a good work out.
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