Monday, October 19, 2009

Excellent MRI Results!

I just cannot even believe how great the news is!

Dr Reidel just phoned me with the results of Friday's MRI. The tumor in the psoas muscle SHRANK SIGNIFICANTLY! The report says that it started at 4.7 by 4.8, and is now 2.5 by 1.9. Maybe some of my mathmetician pals can tell me what percentage shrinkage that is.

Remember, at the last scan, this is the one tumor that did not shrink at all. But we were cool with that because it had been already beaten up pretty badly with the CyberKnife radiation, and sometimes tumors like that just sit there and never shrink but never grow either.

So why am I in pain?!

I have a bulging disc. A plain old ordinary non-life-threatening bulging disc! It is pushing on a nerve root.

The standard approach would be to use ibuprofen for at least a month to try to get the disc un-bulged, and if that does not work to try a steroid injection to shrink the disc.

The tricky thing is that ibuprofen could cause kidney trouble during chemo, so I cannot take the max. The max is 2400 mg per day. I am going to take 1200 mg per day, see if that helps.

Well, I can tell you, just knowing that it is a "disc problem" and not a "cancer problem" has already helped!

I am sitting here laughing and crying all at once. This is such awesome news. I am so grateful. I have been praying pretty hard for help, and I know a lot of you are praying too, and it is working. I am going to have to calm down a little bit before I jump in the car and head to work.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Woohoo!!!

Kathy
A from Kent

Anonymous said...

Hi Karen,
"Yeah" on the good news about shrinkage :). Math is not really my thing, but I came up with 79%. Whatever it is, it's a lot!
Sorry, of course, to hear that you are in pain but it must be a great relief to know what it is from.
We keep you in our prayers and wish the best for you.
Take care,
Mary Beth H.

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear Karen! Think of you and pray for you often!

Maria from WA

Unknown said...

Kathy from Kent took the words right out of my mouth!! WAHOO!!

Anonymous said...

Thank you Higher Power/God for answered prayer. We dance (OK shuffle cuz the disk still hurts) with joy and delight and gratitude.

Love you Karen!!

Kathy S
in Bellevue

Drake said...

Karen!!!! Yippeeee. Yup...78.9percent decrease....dang it. That is incredible!

Delpfine said...

Great news about the shrinkage!!

Anonymous said...

Hip Hip Hooray! (no pun intended) Thrilled to pieces!

Unknown said...

I totally "get" what a relief it is to deal with the pain of something "normal" - what a relief! still isn't fun but not lethal, right? things here are good - dick is loving his "ears" and a big shutout to the va for paying for them (6 grand) so that we can put on a new roof. life is good - miss you, as always!

Daria said...

It's kinda sad when we get excited about a bulging disc ... because it's not cancer ... but I totally understand.

Good stuff on the tumor shrinkage!

Lisa Vasques said...

Hooray! Excellent News!!! I'm sorry about your back pain, but normal is good, even though it hurts! Hopefully it will soon be a distant memory! :-)

Lisa

Ned Charpentier said...

Great to hear. When I pray for you I imagine them shrinking until they're completely gone and then you're healed :) We're all rooting for you.

Ned