The past several days have been filled with trips to the clinic. On Tuesday Shannon had a virtual visit that was rescheduled because the NP (Nurse Practitioner) was out of the office due to illness. Shannon had a virtual visit with the NP on Wednesday Morning and then a PET Scan Wednesday afternoon. Her cell counts returned to normal and actually went a bit high. Her White Blood Cells were very high. They told us to hold off on the daily injections we were giving to boost the blood cell counts. Apparently they worked a little too good.

PET Scan went good on Wednesday afternoon. Shannon had more lab work and an office visit with the NP on Thursday morning. There was no results from the PET Scan at that visit. Blood work was still looking good, white blood cells were creeping back down to normal. Every other lab test was within normal range. The NP called Shannon on Thurday afternoon and said the PET Scan results were back and it showed “huge improvement” in her lymph nodes. Many of the lymph nodes had completely resolved and the others were reduced by 50% or so. The PET Scan measures in a value called “SUV” (Standardized Uptake Value). It shows areas where sugar metabolism is higher than surrounding tissues. The cancerous areas have higher sugar metablolism and show up as bright/brighter spots on the PET Scan. Other things can cause bright spots such as infection or inflammation as well. The doctors can compare her previous PET Scan images to help measure the progress we’re making. (Image attached is just a random PET Scan image from the internet….not Shannon’s).

This morning(Friday Aug 2nd) Shannon had to be at the clinic at 6am for another Bone Marrow Biopsy. The procedure went well. She’s having some aches/pains in her pelvis but that’s to be expected. We should get the results of the bone marrow biopsy once she’s admitted to the hospital next week. The plan is to do another cell count check and doctor visit on Monday, then she will most likely be admitted to the hospital on Tuesday for chemo cyle 1B. Overall she’s doing really good, but she’s not looking forward to being in the hospital again.