The long awaited visit with an oncologist finally took place yesterday. It was like any other doctor visit lately full of questions with half answers that really didn't answer anything. He did however give me a look at the Pet Scan of my body every other doctor has been fussing over since May. I have to admit that when it was explained to me that usually the brightest spots are cancer... I was indeed a bit frightened and alarmed by the body image on the computer screen. I have been saying 15 lymph nodes... I think one doctor threw that number out there at me..... it was an understatement. I tried to count quickly as I was looking but just too many and too clustered together. I basically lit up like a Christmas Tree as you have heard some say. My Pet Scan looks like I have Lymphoma... my body is acting like I have Lymphoma, but since we know for sure that a few of the chest lymph nodes are sarcoid we need to treat the Sarcoidosis first and see how the lymph nodes all respond. There were lights around my kidney, liver, lung, ...not good as I see it and explains why I feel lousy... and my liver is enlarged. OK... I will go with that... I am not game for jumping into cancer treatment if I do not need to....now the key is what treatment for Sarcoidosis will I use? The standard is Prednisone or Methotrexate and I am guessing it is going to be the Prednisone simply because it is probably the one covered by insurance. So in order for these lymph nodes to reduce I have to start treatment. If by some weird chance the other lymph nodes that were not biopsied are in fact lymphoma, then they will continue to grow and multiply in spite of my treatment and then a different treatment plan would go into action... so for now the diagnosis at hand... Sarcoidosis! As for my treatment.... I have to wait until my return trip to the Pulmonologist in September to begin any treatment. On and on this story goes... I wonder if I will ever feel any better or if this disease is going to take over my entire body?
