Positively Positron

Wow, that was a clever post title. Tomorrow at 9:30 I'll be getting my Positron Emission Tomography Scan (PET Scan). If you want to learn more about PET Scans, check this out. So, hopefully my Positron's will be pretty good relative to my Optimus Primes and my Decepticons (lame joke referencing Transformers, had to do it). They just told me I can't have any more carbohydrates today, and I am NPO ("not per oral"...no food or drink) starting at midnight. Tomorrow is the last piece of testing before they decide my stage and start my treatment. I'm still hoping we start chemo Wednesday, but I may have a second opinion set up at some point. Texas would be this upcoming weekend if I get to go, which I should.

My pain in my hip is actually getting better. I am taking steady pain medication, but I am pretty comfortable now and I have had two nights of over 8 hours of uninteruppted sleep. I am able to drive, and today I put my wheelchair in my truck by myself without much trouble, so I am pretty mobile. I think I'll be pretty independent, though soon I will be bald and in a wheelchair looking like Dr. Evil. The kids in the hospital (I work at Stanford Children's Hospital) that have cancer told me today that I probably won't loose my eyebrows until way later in the chemo treatments, but that I should probably buzz my hair soon because it will start falling out. Some of them also winced when I told them about my biopsies...that I was awake and that they stuck a huge needle into the front of my hip and I saw it...and I felt really tough since they have had some other pretty nasty stuff to deal with themselves. I told them that some doctors gave me like an 80% chance of cure, and one said "oh, it isn't even like you have cancer". Haha. These kids have way worse odds and way more hurdles and have overcome it, so now I feel like a huge wimp again. Today I will be sending my check for income tax and I have decided that the IRS is more of a pain-in-the-rear than my second biopsy.