Good News!

The oncologist appointment on Monday was in part intended to reveal the MRI results.  Specifically, is there a tumor on a rib in my back?  For some reason, the MRI didn't take pictures of the ribs in my back.  Instead, it did a full scan of my spine, which I'm glad to say doesn't have a tumor.  Regardless of the lack of information, I'm not worried.  The pain has finally reduced this week and tumors only get bigger and cause more pain so I don't have a tumor.

In other news, the doctor also gave me results of a monoclonal spike test.  It measures cancer in the blood.  When I started this process almost two years ago, the score was about 7.8 which is pretty high.   A few months of chemotherapy in Anchorage brought it down to 2.6 but it would not go down any further.  The first stem cell transplant reduced it to 0.2.  Last June, it was 0.1 and now, it's 0.0!!

Getting zero on a test score has been something I have feared for all of my life.  Getting zero on this test is best news I've had in months.