Good News

Today was much better.

I ran into the radiation oncologist’s PA on my way into the radiation oncology office and got a lot of information.

She and the doctor went yesterday and spoke with a neuro-radiologist. He showed them the nerve strands coming out of the sacrum metastasis area. He said that he is pretty certain that the metastasis on the sacrum is putting pressure on a nerve that goes from there down toward the right hip joint and down my leg.... The PA also told me that the burning pain I was describing is often nerve pain.

It was pretty amazing that I “happened” to walk in right in front of her and learn all of that because if I hadn’t, I probably would have flipped out on the next set of people I was with and become pretty belligerent. It was really nice to talk with her.

Right after I talked with her, I went on to get a ct scan of my pelvis. The CT machine had a light on it that projected a red grid onto me and they used that to mark the locations for the radiation. They drew green x’s with markers and put transparent stickers in the intersection of the x lines, and also put two little metal bb’s on me (they are under stickers too). The x’s and bb’s will stay on and be used to line me up for the radiation.

I was hoping for little tattoo marks like I've seen used elsewhere but I'll just have to be content with the stickers and bb's...

Then the doctor drew on the CT images on a computer, using a marking tool to define the area to be radiated... I tried to get a CD of the images but haven’t yet. They are really cool, so I’m going to ask again next time.

Then I met with the doctor and his PA and he was very nice and relaxed about answering my questions.

So I left feeling much more confident in the process and much more informed and much less ambiguous about the whole thing.

My first radiation appt is for next Tues, June 30. I was hoping it’d be tomorrow but the doctor has to take the CT scans from today and go meet with the physics department to make calculations and measurements and dosage guidelines. After that, all of that information gets entered into the computer system that sets up the machine that actually does the radiation....

Thank you VERY much for praying for me. I went in today feeling very oppositional and skeptical and came out feeling very calm and informed.

God is good even when we can’t immediately see what He’s doing. Having faith that He’s working through these processes is very difficult sometimes when I’m in the midst of all of it and feeling overwhelmed. And sometimes it’s really hard to find the difference between what I’m feeling and experiencing and what I know to be true based on the promises He has made me. I guess that comes back to trying to find a healthy balance between the head/knowledge and the heart/feelings/emotions....