While the radiation oncologist is with another patient, our nurse shared some interesting anecdotes regarding patients from around the world. Apparently Russian patients don’t get very good care in their country, so they tend to over-report the small stuff in hopes of getting the bigger concerns taken care of. Chinese are the opposite. Fear of big brother and shame prevents them from sharing enough information for doctors to assess. Arabic men do not permit the women to speak, so it is interesting being a female nurse when they come in for treatment.
The most interesting story was how the Danish handle the ports. When their children come in to the clinic with a port already installed, it is never covered, and it is usually infected. They immediately have to go into surgery to clean it up, cover it up, and prepare it for future use. I left feeling grateful that I am in America where we get good care; we can tell our doctors what we are experiencing without fear of repercussions, and we do not have to fly over the pond to get there.
I also left with good news! The MRI shows no signs of progression, no new lesions, and in fact the old lesions are gone or insignificant little blips. She was very pleased with the results. I will follow-up with MRIs of the brain and see the radiation oncologist every three months for the next year. Then I will graduate to every four months, six months, and so on. Yesterday’s CT of the chest, abdomen and pelvis, in addition to the whole body bone scan proved similar results. My body is stable! I’ll take stable any day.
This doesn’t mean I don’t have Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer any more. They will always call me Stage IV. But it does mean my body is responding to treatment and God is apparently not finished with me yet. I am anxious to see what He has in store for our next big adventure!
Á la prochaine….Until next time…