Now that the chemo is over the doctors have to figure out several things: did it work, how well it worked and when the operation should be scheduled.
As I see it from the inside, at this point, there are very few precise diagnostical tests available to actually pinpoint the cancer cells. Most of it is a bit of approximation and protocol: this larger, darker mess might be cancer, so let do these MRI, CT scans, or ultrasound to narrow the guessing just a bit..., but the only way to be sure seems to actually remove the cells via biopsy or actual operation and grow them.
So, in this imperfect world, I spent the entire day today, Thursday, being prodded, tested, and imaged to such an extent that could barely talk by the time it was over. From 8 am in the morning till 4:30 in the afternoon, Dana Farber was my "experimental rabbit" trial.
I had:
- numerous vials of blood drawn in preparation for the operation
- Keytruda treatment (I still have at least 4 more to go, every three weeks, I believe)
- an MRI
- a mammogram
- an ultrasound
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