These days turned out nothing like I had planned

Yesterday I had a PET scan to check up on what's going on. It all went fine. I didn't even mind drinking the disgusting barium stuff. I fell asleep in the machine and startled myself awake twice by snoring.

I felt pretty weird after the test, more emotional than I thought I would. I got a bit of lunch and sat and read the paper. I wandered back to my car, called in to see my mum at work, visited a friend for a while, collected a reserved book from the library and then went to Dave's parents' place to see the girls, get changed and have some tea.

After tea, Dave and I drove back into the city to go to the Powderfinger concert. It was ace. I was glad to have made it, having bought the tickets many months ago during treatment, not knowing what things would be like by September. We had seats in the stands like old folk and got there with plenty of time to get a couple of good spots. It was a great night and served as a good distraction from the scan.




This morning I received a call from Dr Giri to say that my scan did show some activity in one particular area in the middle of my chest. The activity showed up a little bit brighter than it was in the previous scan and is "suspicious" for continued disease according to the radiologist's report however Dr Giri said that it is still possible to have a false positive. I have to have a biopsy of the node showing the activity so that it can be analysed in the lab to determine whether it is still Hodgkin's Lymphoma or if it's something else. I have to ring the RAH on Tuesday morning to see when a bed will be available. Then I have to rock up and be admitted, stay the night and have a biopsy on Wednesday morning. I'm not too keen on having to spend a couple of nights in the RAH. I'm sure it will be fine but I don't really want to be roomed in with some weirdo or have to top and tail with someone with festy toenails or hear anyone spew.

It's a similar time of year to when this whole lymphoma business started last year so it's a bit strange to be going through the same kind of thing - scans with unwanted results and not knowing what's ahead. I'm not feeling too bad about it all but it's hard for Dave. He's struggling with things not ending and feeling instead like the same ride is starting over. I guess by the end of next week I should know more about what's showing up as activity and what treatment, if any, may follow.

I'm not quite sure what I think and feel about it all just yet. Partly I'm not too fussed and it's just another challenge to get through. Partly it's annoying because it messes up my plans for the week. It's also annoying because it upsets lots of people around me and I'm not too happy about that.

On a more positive note - I got a dollar coin the other day that I hadn't seen yet, the Crepe Myrtle out the front is showing new growth and I thought it was dead, there's blossom on the fruit trees and I have a Powderfinger t-shirt.