PET Scan

I think if there is a God, he really does want me to live longer. After our trip to Taipei, i was really exhausted from the flight and my digestive system continued giving me problems. It took me about 2 weeks to recover from the trip. I also had adjusted my diet (less raw veggie and fruits) so my diahrreah finally stopped. Then we were wondering if we should to go Shanghai to see the Forumla 1. Hubby said it was all up to me. I was reluctant, because I wasn't sure if traveling was doing me any good. However, he had just finished school, doesn't have a job to pin him down yet. And, he's always been the biggest Formula 1 fan. He hadn't seen Formula 1 live yet. Montreal no longer hosted it, and we suspect Shanghai won't host it much longer. I didn't want to be the cause of hubby's never seeing the Formula 1 live... So we booked flights to Shanghai. About 2-3 weeks before the trip, I started having this dull pain on the right side of my pelvis. I wasn't sure if it was part of my intestines or the pelvic bone itself. It felt like I was constantly having this pain, sometimes less, sometimes more, sometimes in the flesh, sometimes in the bone, but always on the right side of my tummy. I told everyone who cared to listen. I was planning to see more doctors after our Shanghai trip. Then Mom said she knows a good doctor in Shanghai who moved there from Taiwan. Dr. Chu specializes in pain management (疼痛科). We had a chat in his office in Shanghai. He examined my tummy, pressing here and there to see where I was hurting. It was not easy to pin point where my pain was coming from because it doesn't seem to stay in one defined spot. He recommended me to take a PET scan in Taipei. He said it would be best to eliminate the risk of cancer before anything else. So we immediately revised our travel plans. Hubby would return to Toronto as scheduled, but I will go to Taipei with Mom. If hubby came with me, I'd feel pressured to rush everything so we could return to Toronto for Evie as soon as possible. I didn't think I should rush doctors. I also didn't want hubby's parents continue their work shifts in order to take care of Evie in our absence. So hubby went home without me. I came to Taipei to see Dr. Liu, recommended by Dr. Chu. Dr. Liu reviewed my case and asked me to get blood test, ultrasound, and an x-ray done that day, and scheduled CT scan the next day. He was about to dismiss us when I asked him about PET scan. He said because of the fee which is not covered by health insurance, he doesn't usually offer this scan to patients. We said we were willing to pay. So I got to do this scan on Thursday (yesterday). The scan took a very long time. I went in at 9am. At 11:30 I thought I was done but they told me to go eat and return at 12:15. When I came back, they scanned me again for 15 mins. Finally the imaging was done. The doctor there showed Mom, my brother, and myself the results. We looked at pale pictures of my body where black indicated cancerous cells. I had a condensed black dot right in the middle of my body. It looks to me like about where my belly button is but I couldn't be sure. The doctor said it is located on one or two lymph nodes located near the main artillary. (i'm not sure if i'm translating it right - the biggest vein in the body? 主動脈旁淋巴) Clearly it was outside of the cervical area and we wouldn't have known about it if Dr. Chu in Shanghai didn't recommend PET scan to us.. We don't know what this means yet because the PET scan doctor only told us about the image. We have to wait to see Dr. Liu and I suspect another doctor who specializes in lymphoma before we can get any info on what this means. One thing is clear to me - our fight with my cancer isn't over yet, and that God, if there is one, really wants me to live longer.