We have been told that she has 4 clear areas of growth. The 2 paraspinal tumors that we were informed of after her first scan last May and one piece in her right psoas (basically hip) muscle are residual from her original tumor. There is one additional area in the lymph nodes in her lower back that is new. It appears that we may no longer be able to avoid chemotherapy. We are still considering surgery but its risky and we are unsure if this alone would be sufficient.
We should be receiving a call from the hospital soon to schedule us for the MIBG scan. Gabs will take iodine drops for a few days prior to the scan, go in one day and have the radioactive material injected through IV, come back the next day for the actual scan, then continue to take iodine drops for another few days after. The iodine is to help protect her thryroid from the radioactive material. This scan will let us know exactly where all of her disease is located and whether or not it has spread further.
After we receive the results from the MIBG we will be having a sit down with oncology and surgery to discuss our next move. We will most likely need a biopsy from as many of the residual tumors as possible to determine if they have favorable (intermediate risk) or unfavorable (high risk) histology. Her tumor last year was mostly favorable with one chunk of unfavorable. I'm guessing that she will also have a port put back in if we do indeed move forward with chemo.
Treatment probably won't start until March which allows us to still take our Make A Wish trip to Disney on March 1st. We are so looking forward to taking one last big trip before we begin all the yucky hospital stays and chemotherapy that our spring and maybe summer will consist of.
Please continue to pray for the best possible outcome for Gabs MIBG and surgery. I will continue to update as we move forward with the diagnostic stage of her treatment.