The docs have weighed in

I talked to both my oncologist and my interventional radiologist this week about the PET scan results. The interventional radiologist called it a "complete response" to the treatment. He said the reason the report says that I had a resection is because they didn't see anything in the area where there was uptake in the last PET scan, so they assumed I must have had it cut out (they obviously didn't read the form I filled out detailing all my previous surgeries and the SIR Spheres procedure!). He wants me to have a follow-up MRI in another two months, and it sounded like after that I'd only need to see him if I needed another SIR Spheres treatment!

My oncologist called the PET results a 'pleasant surprise', but he is not planning on changing my treatment at all. I have finally recovered from the horrible Xeloda side effects, so I got to start my next round of Xeloda today. We have reduced the dose again (it's now half of the dose I started on originally) and we're hoping that I will be able to tolerate this lower dose. I was really disappointed to hear that I will continue on with chemo indefinitely, so much so that I didn't ask the right questions to understand *why* nothing will change despite a clean PET. I plan on asking the right questions on Monday so that I can understand the reasons. Perhaps then I will feel more like celebrating ...