David and I are spending the majority of our day today in the infusion room at the oncologist. When they bring out your chemo it’s in this yellow bag full of fluids and they go over each one and have another nurse check the numbers on each bag to verify it’s all the right medications. I get all kinds of premeds in my system before the chemo actually starts. They put a lot more anti nausea meds on my list because last treatment, we were literally a block away and I got insane nausea that lasted for days.

I had my first PET scan last Thursday, which was a crazy experience. I had to fast from midnight until the scan and the day before I had to be low carb, low sugar, high protein. For the scan they put a radioactive tracer in my blood stream and the cancer is supposed to eat it up and the scan shows where all the cancer is.

I had never heard of scanxiety prior to being diagnosed with cancer. It’s a very real thing. Anxiety leading up to the scan, during the scan and after until you get the results.

Fast forward to Saturday, I found my scan results in the portal and couldn’t wait so I opened them. It was clear that it said no cancer was found anywhere else in my body. I am not a doctor though, so I put the results in chat gpt and it came back with what I thought, that no cancer was found and it is good news. I was in tears reading it, but someone *ahem, David* was being the cautious one of the two of us and was holding back hope until we heard from the oncologist to confirm the results.

Today we met with the oncologist first. He came in and was reviewing my scan and said doesn’t look like the cancer has spread. And then he said, “Actually, they didn’t find any cancer.” He almost sounded surprised. He did explain that microscopic cells could be circulating in my abdomen so the chemo is to keep them from spreading and not grow. He said the pet scan is good news!

He is referring me to an oncologist surgeon at UT Southwest for the HIPEC surgery. Ive done a lot of googling and reading on chat groups about the surgery and while it sounds painful and has a long recovery time, it helps to get rid of the cancer cells floating. The surgeon will decide if he wants me to do all 12 treatments before surgery or change the plan.

This is the news we wanted to hear today! I am fighting like hell and winning!