"Is My Heart Ready for Chemo?"

I was back in nuclear medicine again. This time, to see if I have a heart. Okay, it was really to see how my heart pumps. I'm pretty sure there was a heart in there (they didn't tell me otherwise)! I had my MUGA scan (Multiple Gated Acquisition scan) which produces a "movie" of the moving heart.

There is a chemo drug (that I might be given) called Adriamycin (generic name – doxorubicin) and a serious problem with this drug is that it can cause heart failure. Yep, I would call that a really serious problem! So, it is important to make sure you have a healthy heart before considering this as one of the chemo drugs in the cocktail.

The medical oncologist will take these results and the PET scan results into consideration when I see him again next week to decide what my chemo treatment plan should be. It's scary. I don't think about it much, but when the time comes I know I'll need a hand to hold. Until then, I keep it in the back of my mind and go about my days as normally as I can (with lots of visits to the cancer center thrown in). But, those visits are becoming part of my "normal."

"PET Scan...Has Nothing To Do With Our Cat"

Nice Nurse Nancy called today to let me know that my "case" had been presented by my surgeon at the cancer center's multi-disciplinary conference. This is when everyone (from pathologists and oncologists to radiologists and surgeons) come together to discuss the patients under their care. It is nice to know that everyone gets on the same page and doesn't just read a chart!

The medical oncologist I will see for the first time next week was there and said he wanted a PET scan ordered to check for metastasis. This is when cancer sneaks away from the tumor and decides to go hang out somewhere else in your body, not a good deal! Nurse Nancy assured me it wasn't because he thought this would be the case, but rather because my tumor was aggressive and because of my young age.

So, once again I have another trip to the cancer center on my calendar and a reminder that I'm not even close to being done with all this.