MRI and Y90 Effectiveness

As promised here are the preliminary results of the Y90 treatment based on the MRI.

First, I'll comment on the MRI.  That was my first MRI, incredibly weird, and different from all the CT scans I'm used to.  First you walk into a room that appears to be sealed with what appeared to be blast doors and a bunch of warnings and lights on the outside talking about the strength of the magnet in the room.  The nurse then hit a button that decompressed the room and made that hiss sound upon opening the door like in the movies.

I then laid in a tight enclosure surrounded by a loud magnet for 20 or so minutes.  The machine is loud; so loud that they give you ear plugs AND headphones.  Despite that, you can still hear a very loud buzz, and what I found most strange, a strong vibration in various parts of your body due to the magnet reacting to the contrast metals they are pumping in you.  Wasn't painful, but a bit unsettling at first, feeling your body pulse in rhythm with the loud buzzing of various pitches.

A few hours later, I met with the doctor to go over the results of the scan.  Nothing like sitting in the clinic room watching the clock tick, waiting to hear from the doctor about something so impactful on your life.  

Anyways, the preliminary results: Overall very good!  Based on the doctor's preliminary review of the pictures, it appears the tumors were mostly dead from the radiation, including some damage to the tumor on the other side of the liver.   There is some inflammation which makes it difficult to interpret the results, so my doctor was waiting for the radiologist (the guy who sits in an office for hours and interprets these pictures all day) to review the results, but the final report was not ready by the time I had my appointment.  I'm still waiting for the final results, but the doctor was very happy with the response based on what he saw.  

To get to the remaining spot on the other side of the liver, we'll wait to hear from the radiologist and determine whether another Y90 procedure should be done or an ablation (poke a needle through the skin to the liver and burn the lesion), which presents similar results with different risks.  

As always, I'll post as I hear more, but thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers!

- Jerome