An Even Shorter Update

For shits and giggles I loaded up my history into Google Gemini to see what it would say. Because the tumor growth had pretty much stalled, I was hoping it would come back and add a little optimism into the mix and say "hmmm ... this is not behaving like an aggressive cancer".

Alas it did not. It came back and said "this is cancer until proven otherwise". It also said an important measure in my upcoming PET scan would be velocity of the tumor. 

The scan here was taken about a year ago, and the values the radiologist would look at to determine velocity would be the actual tumor size (then versus now) and the SUVmax (the brightest pixel on the scan - not shown here but the scale goes from 0 to 17.5). So I guess you cannot be just a guy writing a blog and interpret this scan - you have to know what you're doing.

So that's my question - what's the velocity? 

My PET scan is scheduled for April 22, and I see Dr. Noonan on April 30.

A Short Update

As per my last update, the growth/tumour in my pelvis hasn't changed size for nine months. For a cancer to be as aggressive as mine, and see no change, is strange.

When I saw Dr. Noonan last week, her plan is to do a PET scan in three months to see what's what. If it glows like the previous scan (May'25) then there is something metabolic happening. The best explanation is cancer, but it could be something else. If this is the case, she'll push for radiation. The radiation people told me that didn't want to do anything until/unless they see change - but she'll argue that we should handle this growth while it's still small (about 15mm x 15mm) versus wait till it grows or spreads.

If it's not glowing, and it's not spread (ie: glowing somewhere else in my body) then I think I'm in the clear for now.

So there you have it. 

In the intervening months, we're going to plan a trip to Haida Gwaii. 

The Phonecall

I had my latest CT scan on January 12, where we'd see what is happening to the cancer in my pelvis. It had been "stable" since April 2025, and what it does now would guide next steps.

I have an appointment with Dr. Noonan(oncologist) on January 28 to discuss the CT but, as luck would have it, I had occasion to call Dr. Wong (urologist) in mid-December. He saw that I had a CT lined up and said that he'd call a week later to discuss.

Dr. Wong is much more "just the facts, ma'am" than is Dr. Noonan, so I'd rather get the news (good or bad) from him. 

So here's the news: 

• I've had a nasty cough for about 8 weeks now (nothing else, just a cough). When my GP listened to my lungs a couple of weeks ago, he said they were OK - and that if I had pneumonia I would not look as good as I did.
• Turns out, the CT showed infection in my lungs. I'm gonna get that sorted out this week (I have an appt with my GP on Thursday, and am trying to get in earlier).
• The tumour has not changed size, or metastisized anywhere else they can detect.
• The cancer was aggressive, so we assume something would have happened over the last 8 months. Nope. 
• I have a meeting with Dr. Noonan next week and will ask her to explain. This will likely mean another 3-6 months of monitoring so see what, if anything, happens.

So that's the news today. Good news overall. I can get drugs to combat this lung infection, and the tumour isn't doing anything.

Other than pretty low energy, and this incessant cough, I'm feeling pretty good.