Follow-Up MRI

Every time I go into my oncologist, Dr. Krie's office, I ask if I really have to do all the rounds of chemo. It's gotten so that she anticipates the question and says "YES! You really have to," before I can finish asking.

I have been waiting for some kind of follow-up testing to see how effective the chemo has been, and finally had that this week. I had a follow-up MRI on Monday, and declared to anyone who would listen that I was sure they would find no more cancer.

Then I was going to go ask Dr. Krie if we really had to do round #6 if there was no more cancer. (She undoubtedly already had her answer ready to fire off like Annie Oakley).

Anyway, I just got a call from her office, and the test results are in. The original size of the tumor was 1.6 centimeters. After 5 rounds of chemo, it is down to .6 millimeters.

To put that in perspective, 1.6 cm is about the size of a marble:

And .6 millimeters is about the size of the world's smallest flower- the wolfia punctata, a type of aquatic duckweed.

Google was not really helpful in finding things that are .6mm, 

so here's some tiny green things...

So... that's pretty good news. I guess I'll endure the last round of chemo on Tuesday, and the surgery- which is set for August 21, so that cancer, that stinky little jerk, won't make a return visit.

I ask you to continue to pray that my platelet levels be high enough to do chemo on Tuesday. After my MRI on Monday, it took about 4 hours for my IV puncture to stop bleeding, which isn't a great sign. The surgery is scheduled for 7 weeks after my last chemo, and they require 6, so I'm assuming that it won't be delayed even if I have to wait a week for the last treatment. I just want to get it over with.

On a side note, I discovered this book at the library last week:

It is a graphic novel (i.e. comic book) about the author's own battle with breast cancer. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Refreshingly honest, funny and agonizingly real all at once. This is the book to give as a gift to that friend who was just diagnosed. Only, maybe wait a few months.