PET/CT scans came back looking good! There was no evidence of any recurrence, which is AWESOME news (needless to say!). I had the MRI this morning, and should hear back on those results by early next week at the latest. I’m really hoping that since the PET/CT scan came back good that the MRI will too, but I can’t claim to be an expert on these imaging types, so maybe there could be a difference?

ANYWAY! We are definitely celebrating the good news so far!

In other good news: the party on Sunday went off tremendously and we were blessed to have 40+ friends help us to warm the house. Lots of pictures and recap to come, but the TL;DR version is: Lots of fun, Emmie did great.

More good news: July 2nd must be the birthday of fighters. Emmie now shares a birthday with my dear friends’ son, Aaron, who was born at 28.5 weeks, 7 weeks after his mama’s water broke (and after 6 weeks of hospital bed rest). He is looking great, but he and his parents still have quite a journey before he can come home, so good thoughts and prayers to them as the enter into this new stage of parenthood.

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MRI reflections: It was not too terrible! I couldn’t remember if they wanted me to fast or not, and Google was not helpful, since they said guidelines vary by clinic. Awesome. So I fasted. Future self: they want me to eat a light meal, nothing too big or heavy. You’re welcome.

The worst past was getting the IV. I had an MRI with and without contrast, so they did the without contrast one first, but put the IV for the contrast in at the beginning. I’d had a poke for the PET scan, but that was just an injection. This time I had an IV put in and it stayed in through the whole MRI (about 45 minutes to an hour, I think). It even had a saline flush (YAY), but it turned out not to be too terrible. I must look like a maniac when anyone pokes me with a needle because I start talking incessantly to distract myself, but am only half paying attention to what I say, so I honestly have no idea if the words coming out of my mouth are the ones I mean or not. I wiggle and jiggle my legs involuntarily, and sort of squirm on the table. I’m sure it’s super fun to poke me with needles when I make it look like they are torturing me.

Once it was in, it was OK, although there were some times I felt super aware of it in my arm and it felt like it was so so painful. But then I got used to it and I was OK. Some people have major issues with claustrophobia and MRIs, but I am apparently not one of those people. I even opened my eyes a couple times this time and it wasn’t terrible. The worst was probably when I felt a tickle in my hairline and because convinced that there was a spider in the machine that dropped onto my head and was crawling on my forehead (spoiler alert: it was just my imagination).

If you are at all into practicing any kind of mediation or mindfulness, I think an MRI is a perfect opportunity to practice. It’s SUPER DUPER loud, you cannot move at all, and your body comes alive with all kinds of imaginary ailments, itches, aches and complaints that you must ignore. Again, I managed to slip into a state of sort-of-sleep for at least part of it, which definitely helped to pass the time. I also counted the various thumps, beeps, clicks and honks and tried to detect the patterns. At one point, it was 6 beeps, 5 clicks, 6 beeps, 6 clicks, 6 beeps, 5 clicks, etc. for a really long time.

The best part of the whole thing was that they didn’t give me a second saline flush before they injected the contrast because I had told them that the saline flush made it hard for me to breathe. The funny thing is that the contrast itself was not a problem (not this time, nor last year), even though that can sometimes cause breathing issues for people. Then it was over, they took that damn IV out, and I could eat my breakfast! Now we’ll just have to wait a few days for results, and (God willing), we’ll get the same news as we did about the CT/PET scan.

Thanks for all the good wishes! They seem to be working!