CT scan

Friday I went for a CT scan with contrast of the abdomen, chest and pelvis. The PET scan can show larger masses in the body. My PET came back clear. The CT scan can pick up smaller problems. Sarcomas normally metastasize to the lungs and liver. The myxoid type of sarcoma (my type) can spread to many different areas.

I showed up an hour before my appointment to drink 900 ml of barium suspension.
It was: huge
foamy
milky
chemical-y
vanilla-ish
nasty
and disgustingly repulsive

After and hour I drank a little more poison and then went in to the scan. The tech put an IV in so he could administer the contrast agent after running me through the normal CT scan. Then the tech announced "time for the shot!" and a warm feeling spread from the IV all through my body. I thought I had had an accident. It was so weird.

I'll send the CD of images off to Johns Hopkins after my ankle MRI on Tuesday. Then My 2 doctors can review the images and give me their recommendation for treatment.

They talked about 3 options during my horrible appointments on Wednesday.
1. high-dose radiation M-F for 8 weeks
2. high-dose radiation, then surgery, then follow up with more radiation
The surgery would be to go in and try to get "cleaner margins." Because I had the sarcoma removed without knowing it was cancerous they consider a lot of the area to be contaminated. They'll even remove the whole scar area and anything they can that could have been in contact or could have cancer cells. That's also why I need high-dose radiation. If the Drs had known it was cancerous they would have done radiation first. This would have shrunk the cancer and pulled it away from important blood vessels and other structures in the ankle.
3. amputation
Seriously, we had a whole discussion about it. No wait, back up, I sat and looked at the ceiling trying not to faint while she talked about the process, the outcome and how amazing prosthetics are nowadays. She also mentioned I was lucky because it would be a below-the-knee amputation. That's me- lucky! Spencer was typing out notes on his laptop and I could hear his typing slow down like "wait- if I write this down does it make it real?"

We're looking at options 1 and 2. Duh.

That's the short summary of my really bad day. Sorry to delay this update, but it's taken me a few days to process.

I'm grateful to have mom here driving me around, taking care of the kids and working tirelessly in our home. She stays up late and hasn't even taken a nap! Happy Birthday today to my wonderful mom whose job still hasn't finished as she takes care of me and eases my burdens.

Thank you for your many prayers and thoughts. They make my new reality bearable and bring a lot of peace and comfort.