Scan Results so What’s next? – 28 October 2015 (Cancer and Me 39)

I prematurely wrote the title of this post before my appointment with the Haematology doctor today. I called it, “Stem Cell Transplant is Confirmed”. But it turns out that after the CT scan results there’s a couple more hoops to go through before we get to that point, so I’ve changed it!

The CT scan results looked good. But after discussing with the blood cancer specialists in Southampton, they’ve decided that they want me to have a PET CT scan some time next week. And then the idea is I should have a meeting with the Southampton specialists the week after.

In my way of simplifying things the difference between a CT and a PET CT is like the difference between a Black and White TV and a Colour TV. The PET CT scan can show up whether there is any active cell growth (or something like that) actually going on, whereas the normal CT scan is a bit like an X-ray showing up abnormal lumps of tissue on your insides. What looks like something to worry about on a CT scan can be categorically confirmed with a PET CT scan. In the case of confirming remission all a CT scan can show is that the lymph nodes that were swollen have gone down to a normal size. But they could be normal size and still full of active lymphoma. A PET CT scan can show whether there is any abnormal cell activity in those lymph nodes.

I did question why I’d had to have the CT scan if they knew I was going to have the PET CT scan anyway, but it’s a bit academic now anyway.

So it’s going to take another couple of weeks to get to the point of knowing what’s next.