Looking good

I know there are people waiting on the PET scan results, so I wanted to get a quick blog posting out and not wait until tonite.

Overall things are looking good, pretty much as expected and hoped for.  The maximal dimensions of the tumor have shrunk from the previous scan (almost 3 months ago), from 17.1 x 10.4 x 14.4 cm to 7.3 x 4.2 x 6.2 cm.  That's a greater than 50% reduction in each dimension.  If the tumor was an ellipsoid with those dimensions, that would be a huge reduction in volume -- 93%.  But keep in mind that the tumor is NOT an ellipsoid -- these are maximum measurements, so the actual volume is likely significantly lower, as is the actual volume reduction.  If I had the skills to analyze the raw data sufficiently so that I could make a 3D printout of the tumor (which I had hoped for, although I've since abandoned that plan), I could give a better number.  But I can't, and it's not really that important anyway.

The other good quantitative news for any statistics geeks out there relates to the SUV.  No, not the ginormous gas guzzling vehicles that are prone to rollover, this is an indirect measure of tumor activity, with a lower number being better.  Follow the Wikipedia link if you want a starting point for more details.  Anyway, the max SUV has dropped from 15.6 to 3.9, and quoting from the report, "associated activity has significantly improved ... now with only a minority of the mass demonstrating activity."

So basically this is all good news.  There's still a tumor, but to have expected otherwise would have been unrealistic.  It is smaller and less active, so the chemotherapy is working and doing what it's supposed to do.  The plan is still therefore the same.  Four more rounds of chemo (round 5 starts on Wednesday of next week), then another scan to check on things, and then likely (but still not definitely) some radiation.

I rewarded myself by buying yet another hat on the way home from my weekly checkup, a real classy black and white fedora that I spotted the other day at the hat shop (Goorin) that I previously hadn't heard of that Skippy (Fox, not Sherred) suggested.  I'll post a pic of that, as well as one showing off my new glasses (which I absolutely love) when I get a chance.  But I don't want lack of a picture to hold up this posting.

I suppose I should conclude with an update on the sweets report.  Even though I halved the recipe for the hot fudge sauce, we are nearing the end of the banana ice cream, and still have plenty of the sauce left.  Which means that now I need to make another ice cream to go with the sauce.  But then will I be forced to make more sauce to go with any remaining ice cream, and so on, in a vicious circle?  I suppose there are worse predicaments one can find oneself in.  The current leading contender for the next flavour attempt is strawberry ice cream.  I suppose we could even compare strawberry ice cream with chocolate sauce to chocolate ice cream with strawberry sauce.  Yum.