Shannon Rinaldo

Shannon Rinaldo - Journal

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Posted 2018-12-19T18:35:00Z

A journey that's anything but boring

I've had two checkups since my October appointments. First off, the radiology report from the October spectroscopy MRI agreed with what Dr. No Naps said, stable and indicative of post treatment effects. Just take my word for it that this is a good thing. I also had a scan (a regular MRI) in December, that came back inconclusive. Now, hold your ponies and don't freak out. This isn't anything new. We've been down this road and know how to navigate it. So...hear me out. I had my first surgery February, 2016, followed by radiation and chemo. "Post treatment effects" can show up for months to a year after that. Basically, if the radiation and/or chemo kill cancer cells, the dead tissue can sit in there. Since they are dying or dead, they are "leaky" cells and show up on MRI and other scans in a manner indistinguishable from tumor. In late 2017, there were a couple of indeterminable scans, so we did the spect MRI and it said mixed treatment effects and viable tumor. Fast forward to September, 2017, and that's when we decided to do the second surgery, which showed mixed tissue (Thus, verifying the interpretation of the spect MRI). After that there was more radiation and chemo. I'm still taking the chemo 5 days per month, followed by 23 days with no chemo. I actually finished day 5 last night, it didn't go as well as I prefer, and I'm still looking for the driver of the truck that apparently ran over me again and again while I slept. I'm fortunate to have both Jason and my mom to take care of me. They don't even complain when cleaning up my vomit in the middle of the night. Every time I go through this I think and then say aloud, "I don't want to do this anymore!" But then in a few days I always feel better and take it like instructed after 23 days off. [...]

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Shannon Rinaldo 13 Comments

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