Oh, the Irony

We left home this morning just as the sun was peeking over the mountains.  Brendan had had a rough night (earache and nausea) and he ended up sleeping most of the way to Salt Lake.

 When we got to the hospital and checked in at "Imaging,"  they didn't have a nurse available that could access his port.  Brendan needed the radioactive dye 2 hours before his scan, and he didn't want another IV in his arm.  So we went up to the Oncology Clinic on the 4th floor where they do this all the time.

 Vital were taken, Brendan was weighed (33 kilos), and his port was accessed.  Brendan said that after a month without a port access he was pretty nervous.

 We returned to the scanning area and Brendan was given the radioactive material into his veins.  Then he was sent to CT for scans of his neck.  While waiting the 2 hours before his bone scans, Brendan and I went to K Pod (the overflow to the cancer unit) to visit Jeni and Henry (My sister-in-law's brothers son).  Henry was finishing his 2nd round of chemo and preparing to be discharged.  Brendan liked Henry's room.  It was a little more spacious than the rooms on the 4th floor, and is in a quiet area of the hospital.  And Brendan liked the tile decoration in Henry's room.

After the CT scan Brendan added his note to the wall in the construction area.

 It's always fun to read the notes on the walls.

 Two hours later it was time for the bone scans.  The hardest part was picking which movie to watch. (He finally settled on a Herbie movie).

 Brendan's feet were taped together to hold them still, and he was strapped to the table.

 Scans of Brendan's whole body, head, and pelvis were taken.  All together it took about 45 minutes.

 After bone scans and lunch and a visit with Lena Peel, we settled into Exam room 4 at the Clinic to wait for the doctors.

 We had plenty of time to rest before they came in.
Dr. Mesnarich and Dr. Fluchel came in and we discussed the blood tests.  Good news:  ANC, platelets, hematocrit were all up -- way up. Bad news:  Brendan's sodium had dropped to 126.  (We were told not to give sodium supplements on Sunday so we could see how Brendan would handle it.  Now we know.)

Scan results came in pieces. The MRI looked great.  No sign of any tumor.  The CT scan of the neck showed a negligible difference in the size of the lymph node at the base of Brendan's neck.  The report said that it did not look like it had cancer.

The bone scans took awhile longer before we got the results.  Surprisingly, the results from this bone scan appear almost identical to the bone scans taken 6 weeks ago.  Spots all over Brendan's body "lit up."  While it is not clear what is causing this, it seems most likely that it is not metastasized bone cancer, as he is not in excruciating pain or have other symptoms -- as would be the case if this was spread as extensively as the scans show.  It may be metabolic issues and/or pituitary gland issues and they will continue to look into that possibility.  The sodium issues are also a concern and the kidney function will be re-visited with a nephrologist (kidney specialist).

 So the great news is that we see no definitive signs of any cancer.  The bad news was that Brendan ended up having to stay at the hospital tonight and will have to stay until his sodium is back up and they can get it stabilized.  Ironically, Brendan ended up in the exact room we had spent the morning visiting Henry in.

We decided not to have Brendan's end of treatment bell ringing ceremony since it seemed rather anticlimactic to do it on his way to his hospital room.  So it will be rescheduled.  Probably for when he is discharged.

I haven't quite mentally sorted through everything that has happened today.  Knowing there are no signs of tumor in his head and sinus area is very comforting.  Seeing that the lymph node in his neck hasn't grown or changed is great news.  Having the bone scans unchanged is a surprise to me.  I was really thinking that having 6 weeks away from chemo would make a big difference.  (We were told, though, that it may take still longer for the effects of the chemo to dissipate.)  It just tells us that there are still lots of things going on in Brendan that we just don't understand.  The doctor thinks that the reason they are so confusing is probably that there are multiple problems all going on at the same time.  So it is difficult to sort out.  The fact that Brendan continues to gain strength is a great sign that things are going in the right direction.  In time, we can hopefully figure out everything else. 

(Oh, and yes, we did pack an overnight bag. . .)