Partial results but promising

I was all prepared to get my petscan results today at the oncologist.  When my oncologist came in, she had to share the news that we only had partial results right now.  My original scan was done at a hospital, and yesterday's scan was done at one of my oncologist's offices.  Unfortunately when the hospital sent over the disc of images so that they could be compared..... it was blank. (Yes, this is exactly my normal type of luck, I know!)  Without the comparison, we don't know for sure how the number or sizing of lesions compare.

In a petscan, the oncologist said we are looking for 3 things that are positive signs: areas have disappeared,  have shrunk, and/or  the uptake value has reduced.  The one thing that we do know is that the uptake has reduced which is at least promising. (For those with medical knowledge, I apologize in advance as I probably butcher this explanation).  In a petscan, they inject you with a radioactive tracer that goes to areas of higher metabolic activity such as cancer, and then those areas get assigned an uptake value depending on how bright they are, etc.  A normal liver has a standardized uptake value (suv) of 2-3.   In my original scan, all of the lesions had an suv  of between 6-13.  In this scan, all of the lesions were between 4 - 6.1 which seems to indicate that things are promising and going the right direction.  I'm just being cautiously optimistic until we know for sure how everything aligns with that original scan and that there are no new places, etc.    Another disc was requested, and my oncologist will call me once she receives the amended report.  Once we have the whole picture, I will feel a lot more comfortable!

I'm still dealing with the low fever and some signs of infection.  I will see the plastic surgeon tomorrow late afternoon, and hopefully, the 3 days of the new antibiotic will have begun to work their magic.   I am also waiting on a blood culture just to make sure that the infection we're dealing with isn't in the blood, but in general, the oncologist seems to think that I feel too "good" for that to be the case.  I have to agree with her.   I've got the fever headache/neck ache, but other than that I don't really feel bad.  Please continue those prayers that the infection will go away quickly and without requiring any additional surgery or anything like that.    I appreciate so much the prayers, cards, messages, and thoughts!  They mean so much, and always brighten my day!