Minnesota

I haven't written anything in a few days but not much has been going on. I don't remember if I wrote about being accepted into the American Cancer Society Hope Lodge. If not now everyone knows. The Hope Lodge is a place where cancer patients can stay for free for up to 6 months while they are being treated in the Twin Cities. I am going to give it a month and see what happens. Optimistic would be the word I would us to describe my feelings towards it. Everything is pretty cool sounding except for the 9pm curfew and locking of the building doors. I guess I am sleeping on some friends couch on the weekends. hahaha. Dr.Maddaus looked at my scans and gave me a call on Sunday afternoon and he has his assistants gathering up all of my info from the biopsy's, labs, and blood work this week. He is also going to get a specialist up there that he thinks would be the best suited to handle my case. He know the type of person I am so I can honestly say I trust him in doing that. He also said he wants to get another CT and PET scan done at their facility to update films. At the moment I am unsure when I am heading that way though. Tomorrow I am going in for a MUGA scan. A MUGA scan is basically a test to see how strong my heart is. The chemo I am taking does damage to the heart if it isn't strong enough. I have to pound water for quite a while before I go in just to make it easier to find my veins and to let the two dyes they inject flow easier. After I am injected with the dyes I basically wait for 30 minutes then lay on a table while a scanner rotates around me snapping pictures. I have to do what I have to do. My family doesn't exact have strong heart conditions as they get older so this should be interesting. Then the following Tuesday I have and appointment with the best Sarcoma specialist here in Wisconsin to gather his opinion and assess my situation. I am bound and determined to have both places working together. I can make that shit happen. I usually get my way when I am determined. I also received an email from Brian who is in a band called Seconds Before (myspace.com/secondsbefore). He is a super cool guy and in a sweet band. We have been working on getting a certain band for the July 12th Rock Cancer Out show (in Minneapolis at Club Underground) and they are close to joining on. I am not going to name any names at the moment but it is awesome if they do.

Q: What is a PET scan?
A: A PET scan is a scan that involves injecting a sugar based liquid into your body and scanning. Cancer actually eats sugars and it shows up in these scans. The scans are not a quick as the normal CT scan is in fact it is nearly 3 times longer and more intense in my book. They are taken the same exact way as a CT though. If you are familiar with that then you understand what I am talking about. When looking at the scan your body is outlined and basically should be black, purple, or dark blue. Areas where there could be possible cancer they will light up in yellow, red, and orange. Sometimes things show up in those brighter colors lightly but it doesn't mean it is cancer.