Hairy thoughts

The body aches that usually accompany the week following chemo weren't as strong as usual. I'm attributing it to my water consumption. I am drinking between 2 and 3 liters a day. I thought I had been doing this all along, but taking note of every ounce seems to be helping.

Tomorrow is the big PET scan. It is the only PET scan (to my knowledge) that I will have during my treatment, and it could change the course of my treatment. Here are the three possible PET scan results (I'm making this up, so if you're an actual doctor reading this, feel free to roll your hairy eyeballs at my simplistic result scenarios .......... um alright .. you caught me .... I just wanted to use "hairy eyeballs" in a sentence. I thought it blended well.)

• Worst case scenario is that the cancer is not responding to the chemo. Dr. Kari would change the chemo drugs, and buy herself a trip to the Cyclotron or Linear Accelerator or some source of radiation.
• The "not to good but better than the worst case" scenario is that the tumors have shrunk, but the PET still shows metabolic activity. It means the cancer is shrinking, but not as fast as we want it to. I would need radiation (which by the way, I'm beginning to think isn't so bad. I've read that my chance of recurrence decreases a few percentage points with radiation ... um ... liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike that.)
• Best case and most likely case scenario is that the PET shows no metabolic activity ... zilch. I will then continue to do my 6 months of chemo and be done with Hodgkin's forever.

Anyhoot, let's move on to a crowd favorite -- HAIR WATCH. I continue to find squirrels (aka hair balls) in the shower, on the carpet, in my food, stuck to Brennan's pajamas, between my teeth ... but my head of hair still looks alright according to my loving husband (is that like asking your mom if you're special?) Personally, I think three quarters of it is gone, and I'm just on the verge of looking like a person with thinning hair. Eric and I are attending a wedding this Friday; I'm hoping it holds out until then. It tends to fall out a lot right after chemo which I have this Wednesday.... so we'll see. Send your hairy thoughts my way!

As for the moment - I am feeling great! A little nervous about tomorrow, but great none the less. I even stayed out until 2 o'clock in the morning on Friday with the girls .... yes yes ... lots of late night laughter! Who knew?