The results of the PET scan are back!

Here is the short version:

"There has been mild progression in terms of the extent of the FDG uptake in the right base of the neck, right supraclavicular fossa and in the proximal part of the gastric pull through as described. The uptake in the left upper retrotracheal region also appeared more evident on today's study. In view of the uptake at these sites at this time interval following radiotherapy, recurrent malignancy at these sites cannot be definitely excluded. However since the progression is mild when compared to the previous PET in May 2007, if no further treatment or intervention is considered at this point in time, a further progress study in 3 months to assess any interval change may be of benefit.

Otherwise there is no evidence of metabolically active malignancy demonstrated elsewhere."

I have no idea about anyone else's feelings about this result, but it my initial impression is that it is a continuation of the words of the Harry Belafonte song:

"it's as clear as mud, but it cover de ground and
the confusion she goes round and round."

The view of the oncologist is that it is more likely than not to be either a recurrence or some continuation of the cancer that was not able to be totally removed with the last set of operations in 2006.

The current size of the soft tissue mass appears not to have grown significantly since the last picture and yet there is something there that should not be there. Apparently taking a biopsy given the location is a risk and a really hit and miss option. So we are back where we were in May really - we don't know for sure WHAT it is but we do suspect that it is indeed a recurrence and as such the question is what to DO about it?

It is a fact of life that chemo therapy would actually reduce the size of the mass if it is a tumour, but of course this would use up another 'life-line' as the number of times that chemo therapy can be used effectively is finite and not open to discussion.

After a while the stuff is so toxic that using it actually makes things worse!

Apparently the location makes it unsuitable for further surgical intervention and radiation therapy is out of the question.

So the question still is WHAT to do?

If you let the thing go without intervention then at present it's very slow and appears not to be impacting on anything else so - do you wait for it to grow bigger and risk cells breaking off and starting new spots elsewhere making the problem worse?

Do you hit it and hit it hard once again?

Or ?????

Wait for the next exciting episode in this saga I guess!

Damn!

Saw this on the news today and thought that if ONLY I can hang on for a few more years I might be able to get back both my voice and some of the nerves that have been cut or damaged through the surgery that has taken place.

Check it out for yourselves: at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7049601.stm

New nerves grown from fat cells

The technique could potentially repair severed nerves

New nerves grown from stem cells taken from a patient's fat could be available by 2011, researchers have said.

They could potentially be used to repair peripheral nerves left severed by surgery or accidents.

Manchester University scientists plan to place the new nerve tissue inside a biodegradable plastic tube, which can be used to rejoin the two broken ends.

The findings of their study on rats, in Experimental Neurology, could help hundreds of people a year, they say.

The patients will not be able to tell that they had ever 'lost' [the feeling to] their limb Professor Giorgio Terenghi UK Centre for Tissue Regeneration

At the moment, only limited techniques are available to help repair nerves outside the spinal cord, even though they have a limited capacity to regrow.

Other nerves from elsewhere in the patient are often used, which does not restore perfect function and can cause further damage.

The Manchester technique uses stem cells - immature cells which the body naturally uses to create different tissue types.

So far, the team has extracted stem cells from fat tissue taken from rats, and managed to coax the cells into becoming neurons - nerve cells - in the laboratory.

Their next step is to repeat this in stem cells from human fat, and then create a full replacement nerve, using a biodegradable "sheath" to surround it.

This nerve-filled tube could then be implanted to re-join the ends of a severed nerve virtually anywhere in the body, they claim.

Large tumour

Dr Paul Kingham, who led the research, said: "The differentiated stem cells have great potential for future clinical use, initially for treatment of patients with traumatic injuries of nerves in the arms and legs."

He said that the treatment might be available in four or five years, as a study to test the biodegradable tube is already under way.

Dr Kingham said it could also work in cases where surgeons have had to remove a large tumour close by a nerve, damaging or cutting the nerve in the process.

Professor Giorgio Terenghi, the director of the university's Centre for Tissue Regeneration, said: "This new research is a very exciting development that will improve the lives of many different types of patients - and therefore many, many people.

"The frequency of nerve injury is one in every 1,000 of the population - or 50,000 cases in the UK every year.

"The patients will not be able to tell that they had ever 'lost' [the feeling to] their limb, and will be able to carry on exactly as they did before."

Still waiting!

For those who have rung or written to ask what's happening - my answer I am afraid continues to be the same - nothing!

There has been no change in the situation - I have had the PET scan and returned home - there has been no contact from any of the doctors involved about the results. I suppose I could always to the "no news is good news" routine but I am afraid that I suspect that more forces are at play. With Liverpool hospital having lost one of its machines and having a back log of scan that they are doing and analysing I suspect that what's really going on is that the results are caught up in a back log and it may be some time before they are analysed and reports etc sent to my doctors.

So it's a continuation of drugs to try and maintain the barriers to pain - it's a continuation of day after day of trying to put out of one's mind possibilities and it's a continuation of trying to find the best possible times to eat and to sleep without it having a major impact on those around you.

As for the inability to speak with any volume - the check out lady at the local supermarket asked the other day if I had laryngitis.

What a wonderful question!

It meant that she could hear me - albeit with an effort - but at least she could hear me. I told her what the problem was and she was shocked - I don't think she has ever met anyone before who cannot make their vocal cords work!

There are signs that I am starting to cope a little better with my current situation. I have figured out some ways of eating and drinking that cause as little problem as possible and as a result I suspect that I may be able to recover some of the weight I seem to have lost over the last few weeks.

More as it happens.