Meeting with Dr. Woods (updated)

Well today we met with Dr. Woods. I guess I went into the meeting assuming a black and white answer. But we left with a grey one. Dr. Woods read us the radiology report from his CT-Scan.
"Lungs: No masses, effusions or infiltrates are detected. No mediastinal or hilar adenopathy is observed."
So, no tumors or Large lymph nodes in the chest - Yea!

"No abnormalities of the spleen, pancreas, gallbladder, adrenal glands or kidneys are appreciated. Stable, small cysts in the liver consistent with 03-Jan-08 study"
All looks good so far - Yea!

"A dense calcified lymph node is again visualized in the right paraarotic region. Adjacent necrotic lymph node is no longer seen. Instead, small amount of decreased density is present adjacent to the anterior right aorta. Previously noted paracaval and pelvic adenopathy seen on prior examination is also no longer visualized. No abdominal or pelvic masses are appreciated."
Dr. Woods was going to talk with the radiologist and see what he thought of the "small amount of decreased density and dense calcified lymph node " comment. But overall he said its good. - Cautious Yea!

"CT Overall Impression - Interval Resolution of previously noted retoperitoneal adenopathy"
interval? I wanted to see the words complete resolution.


So you all know all we know now. Tomorrow we meet with Dr. Lewis, the surgeon, at 8:30. We will see what he thinks of the CT-Scan and if any thing needs to be done from his standpoint. We are also going to call Dr. Hoops and see if he will met with us and go over the CT-Scan with models again. There is also the weekly tumor board meeting every Wednesday. So after they met next Wednesday if Dr. Woods thinks anything needs to be done he will call us.


EDIT: Dr. Wood just called. Here is what he said: - Dr. Hoops is out of town, but will be back early next week. Dr. Wood did leave a message on his voicemail. - Calcified lymph node: probably lymph node shrunken but not gone, it could be a tumor or scar tissue. Dr. Wood said we should get a PET scan (and he is ordering it). The only problem with the PET scan is that the false negative rate is 10-15%. - Current options: observation, surgery, or radiation therapy Some of the blood work has come back: - Electrolytes are normal - Liver activity is normal - Anemic, 10.4 hgb - White blood cells normal - Platelettes are normal - Beta HCG normal - LDH tumor marker elevated. Probably as a result of chemo (peaked at 397 during chemo), it's at 216 now, with a normal cutoff of 190