I had a PET scan in Boston this morning, per my request. My concern was regarding the ongoing pain in my left shoulder. Dr. Lin felt it was 99% certain that it was referred pain from the atelectasis in my left upper lobe. I wanted to rule out a bone met.
Well, Dr. Lin was spot on, as the scan highlighted the hot spots in my lungs but nothing in my shoulder:
CHEST:
Mild reactive FDG uptake to loculated left-sided pleural effusion, unchanged in size compared to 11/6/2020.
Intense FDG uptake to the subpleural masslike left upper lobe consolidation with superior and dominant anterior component. The inferior component measures 5.8 x 3.0 cm, unchanged compared to most recent correlation CT chest when measured in a similar fashion, but significantly increased in extent and size compared to CT chest from 12/2/2019 (3:117).
Additional focal FDG avid disease posteriorly (CT 4, 66; PT 3, 114), adjacent to atelectatic lung.
Additional smaller right upper lobe solid nodules demonstrate focal intense FDG uptake, with representative examples including 11 mm left upper lobe nodule (CT 4, 58; PT 3, 122) and 9 mm right upper lobe nodule (CT 4, 57; PT 3, 123). These nodules have demonstrated gradual increase in size, number and progression since 2019.
Mild FDG uptake to 1.0 cm right hilar lymph node (3:117).
So, those horses may be out of the barn but they haven’t moved to higher pastures. In six days, we’ll be taking another approach. At this stage of the game (multiple resistance mutations) anything is a long shot. Having a shot–any shot at all–is what matters to me.
Let’s do this.
xo
life and breath: outliving lung cancer 