In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half the lake?

Yesterday (Tuesday 5/28) morning as I pulled into the parking lot of the facility where I was receiving the PET Scan, I got a text from my wife.  It simply read, “Think negative thoughts.”  If you read Being Positive – Part 1, you already know that we knew our last Signatera blood test came back positive, so there was an increased level of concern. 

This morning brought the moment of truth.  The doctor walked into the room and gave us the quick synopsis of the PET results.  She said the scan showed no signs of activity.  I looked at my wife and said, “I guess it worked” regarding the negative thoughts.

So the PET came back negative.  But we are concerned about the Signatera.  As I’ve said before, all of the other times I had that blood test, it came back negative.  While I’m nowhere near qualified to interpret much of what’s going on, it seems to me that something is happening, but it’s still small enough to not show up on the scans.  Although my bladder and prostate are gone, along with over 90 of my lymph nodes, there were instances where it had spread to some of my bones.  And none of those had been removed.

Our current plan is to do another Signatera test in two weeks to see what the trend looks like.  Then, when we follow up two weeks later, we’ll determine to what extent further treatment is necessary.  The doctor did say that it’s quite possible that I’ll be back on some kind of regimen.

It’s hard to describe what’s going through my mind.  While the Signatera came back positive, it’s good that we know that especially since the PET was negative.  Without the Signatera, we would think everything is fine and there is nothing to worry about.  The PET being negative means that if something is happening, it’s still very early and we can come up with a plan of attack.  If you were able to solve the riddle above, you know the answer is the lily pads cover half the lake on the 47^th day.  If we swap out lily pads for rapidly dividing cancer cells, then hopefully in my situation, we’re in the first few days and we can slow them down or stop them entirely before they cover enough of the lake to light up the PET scan.  Obviously, the longer it goes untreated, its exponential growth can get very nasty very quickly.

I mentioned that we see the doctor in a new location.  Well, if I must have infusion treatments again, this time, it will be in nice new chairs that have USB ports, heat, and massage.  That was NOT the case at the last place.  Plus, one of the drawbacks to my infusions last year was the amount of fluid they were pumping into me. I had to get up and go to the restroom 4 or 5 times during treatment.  If you read the Top Ten Benefits to Having Urostomy Surgery blog, you know that issue is much more manageable these days.  I’ll be able to set myself up so I don’t have to get out of that amazing chair until I’m done for the day.

So here’s the scoreboard at the moment:

• Signatera: Positive
• PET: Negative
• Mindset: Ironclad and Positive

And nothing has changed since yesterday.  I will control what I can regarding my health, I will continue to work towards all of my goals, and I will live for the moment and never quit. 

No Matter What.