Pesky pesky pesky decision

Hi everyone!  All is well at the Robbins' home front.  The pesky decision making process is (hopefully) complete.  I think we're going without the radiation.  That means two and a half more months of chemo.... wooo hooo! A special shout out to two wonderful radiation oncologists who spent hours with Eric and I going through my scans.  Nothing like teaching someone anatomy who has no idea where the spleen is (do you know?).  Like I said, awesome radiation oncologists.

We learned from these radiologists that there is some uptake in my "clean" PET scan.  This means that there was some metabolic activity in the exact location as my largest nodal mass.  This of course worried us.  But, my oncologist said that a totally normal PET is unheard of.  In addition (Eric and I seem to need to hear the same thing twice before we believe it, especially if it's good news.), Eric talked to a radiologist today who is a friend of a friend, and she said that I had a really good reaction to the chemo.  She also called (like ring ring on the telephone) the radiologist at Northwestern who originally read my PET to ask specifically about the residual uptake.  How totally cool is that!  I love when doctors talk about my scans! The Northwestern radiologist brought my PET up on his screen and took a look at it again; he said that the amount of uptake is insignificant.  First, Northwestern doctors are awesome (he brought it up on his screen to look at it again.)  Heck, all the doctors I've spoken to (minus one, but poor guy was just uptight.) have been tripping over themselves to be helpful.

Ultimately(this is after the zillion of hours of research and conversations), I attempted to make the decision by trusting my gut which isn't super easy considering my mind is hard to quiet these days. 

Chemo number 8 of 12 is tomorrow.  If I did the radiation, I think I would have kept my hair, but without it I think I'm going to have to kiss my hair goodbye so keep watching for the updated hair watch. I may never shave it, but I am going to get my wig fitted.  Not because I'm stoked about wearing a wig, but because I have the name of an awesome wig designer.  Who doesn't want an awesome wig designer to cut and style a wig just for them?  Jealous?  I know ... it sounds like a too-much-fun-to-pass-up adventure!