Passed the lumps and bumps test - that's a big milestone

Last week I had my sixth (!) PET scan of the last year. This was a big one - if the tumor wasn't responsive to the ICE protocol I was on, I wouldn't be able to do the BEAM protocol and stem cell transplant we have planned for late March. So I was super nervous about the test. Each week for the last six weeks the tumor in my neck has shrunk so I was pretty confident that things were going in the good direction. But boy - getting that DVD from the PET scan technician, putting it into my laptop and looking at the scan. Man, that's a pretty nervous 30 seconds or so. My stomach tightens up, I can feel my heart beating. All the typical stress reactions.

And - drumroll - the scan looked great! No obvious signs of increased metabolic activity in my neck or anywhere else in my lymphatic system. Here's the picture:

My layman's interpretation was confirmed by the radiologist - nodes greatly reduced in size, only a tiny bit of increased metabolic activity, which isn't visible in this view. So this was really good news - this is basically my admission ticket to the chemo next month that will hopefully completely stamp out these bad boy cells and get me set for many a year of healthy living!