Ruth Update, October 1, 2007

Dear Friends, Relatives, and Prayer Partners,

The honeymoon is over. The results of my PET scan show a malignancy in my T8 (eighth thoracic) vertebra. Maybe the guy reading the MRI counted wrong. It also shows areas of "increased metabolic activity" in some other places in my skeleton. None of these places hurt. That's the good news. I think God sent me a back spasm to force me to get an MRI, which led me to getting a PET scan.

I got the news this afternoon from my primary care physician. He is a teddy bear of a man, who really cares about his patients, but he is a family practitioner. He will send the information to my oncologist, and I expect to hear from her tomorrow.

The only plans I have right now are to go to Radford University in Radford Virginia for parent's weekend this weekend. After that, we don't know. We hope to be able to go to Paul's hometown for Christmas, but we will see what happens. That's the plan, anyway.

I am ticked off and pretty upset. Please pray for me.

Get your mammograms. Do your self-exams.

Ruth

PS to my blog readers (all four of you): These updates are actually copies of e-mails that I send out to my friends, relatives, and prayer partners (duh). Like you haven't already figured that out. If you would like to be added to the e-mail list (I always use BCC), please e-mail me at reprovance AT yahoo DAHT com, and I will add you to the list. If you want to read my adventures in the land of cancer from the beginning of my last (second) diagnosis, go to the beginning of the blog. It's all in there. I always post the updates to the blog, so bloglines or something like it will serve you just as well as getting e-mails. Thanks.