New Lesions?

There always seems to be an underlying reminder that cancer is still in my body. I have Stage IV, Metastatic Breast Cancer (terminal), with mets to the bones, liver, lungs, and brain. The brain, liver and lungs are clear (praise God!), and my bones have been stable for quite a while. But last week’s MRI of the brain indicated some “growth” in a lesion on my left front of the skull. It’s behind my left eye.

I got calls from my oncologist today, twice, and he’s still waiting to hear back from the radiologist. I love my oncologist as he is so diligent about finding information and giving it to me. He doesn’t sit on his laurels waiting for information. He seeks it out until we know what we know. Here is what we now know:

1. The brain is clear. No new lesions, and the old ones are gone.
2. I have mets to the bones. When first diagnosed (2016), it was in my ribs, spine, and skull, but these tumors and lesions have either disappeared or stabilized for quite some time.
3. I also had mets to the liver, lungs, and brain, which have also disappeared and stabilized over the past couple of years.
4. There is a change in a tiny (1cm) bone lesion we never knew existed. It is in the front left part of my skull, but none of the reports prior to this one seem to indicate it was ever there, yet there is mention that it grew since October of last year.
5. There is another lesion showing up in the right front part of my skull.
6. All other skull lesions are unchanged.
7. The radiologist will review all of my pictures for the past year or so and see when these frontal lesions first showed up, and hopefully provide us with ore information.
8. I am scheduled to have a bone scan on February 3rd. The bone scan will tell us whether it is activity or a result of treatment.
9. He has scheduled for some additional blood work on February 3rd to check my tumor markers. That should provide us more information on whether it is further metastasis.
10. I am already being treated, so at this point he doesn’t think we will change anything regarding treatment, but we need to know what we are dealing with.

Here’s what we don’t know, and hopefully will find out from the radiologist after he looks at the sequence of pictures more closely.

1. We don’t know whether I will need additional treatment or tests besides those already scheduled.
2. We don’t know yet when the lesion first appeared.
3. We don’t know if my left eye issues could be related to the lesion in my skull. It is directly behind my left eye.
4. We don’t know if this is cancerous activity (increase in metastasis), or a result of treatment showing up on the scans, or how fast it is growing if it is metastasis.

I’ll keep you posted as soon as I hear more. I am not worried, and my doctor is not worried about it either. We will keep praising God, pressing on, living life, and deal with whatever we learn along the way.

Á la prochaine…until next time!