False alarm, Deb still doing fine

Deb's CAT scans and other major tests are coming at six-month intervals now (actually seven this time due to scheduling problems). Here's the short version: Something suspicious turned up in the CAT scan, but then a further test was done to remove the suspicion. Everything looks good.

Which is not to say that we didn't have a nail-biting couple of days.

Actually we had gone to great lengths -- literally great lengths -- to avoid nail-biting this time around. We knew there was going to be a nine-day gap between doing the CAT scan and getting the results, and we know from experience that we don't get a lot done during those gaps. So we planned a major-league distraction: After getting the scan done, we went straight from Beth Israel to Logan Airport and flew to London with our friends Dawn and David and their four boys, ages 1, 4, 7, and 10. We had noticed that the boys leave us very little time to think, and that sounded like a good thing.

It was a great trip. The highlight for us was seeing Vanessa Redgrave join the Royal Shakespeare Company to play the title role in a new translation of Euripides' "Hecuba". We also took a boat down the Thames, found the prime meridian in Greenwich, located the spot in Westminster Abbey where Oliver Cromwell was buried until the restored monarchy dug him up and put his head on a spike, and caught a very nice production of "The Tempest" at the restored-to-Shakespeare's-time Globe Theatre. We spent a lot of time chasing the kids through parks, and shot about 350 pictures, some of which are extremely cute.

We got back on Monday, and Tuesday Deb found the radiologist's report online: The liver, which is the main focus of our worry, looked fine. But there was a thickening at the bottom of the stomach, close to where the original tumor was. In addition to the obvious tumor-recurrence fear, the radiologist suggested one harmless explanation: Maybe there was still food in her stomach. That sounded reasonable to us, because we had gotten Deb a good breakfast close to the boundary of the don't-eat-before-the-test period. Given that Gleevec seems to screw up digestion, maybe we should have allowed more time. The radiologist wanted a follow-up test just to make sure.

So it was probably nothing, but we should check. You have to remember, though, that both of Deb's previous cancers were detected when we checked out something that was probably nothing. "It's probably nothing" doesn't mean a lot to us at this point. We worry about everything.

When we saw Dr. Lange Wednesday morning, he didn't seem particularly worried, but he agreed we should have the additional test. Strings were pulled, and we got it done immediately, though we wouldn't get results until Thursday (today).

Wednesday afternoon provided its own distractions free of charge. Not realizing the Red Sox had an afternoon game, we got into a traffic gridlock around Fenway Park. After escaping, our car died on Route 2 near Alewife Station. A tow truck was called, but I managed to get the engine started again before it showed up. Limping home nearly three hours after leaving Beth Israel, we found a phone message from my father saying that my mother was in the hospital. (My car and mother are both expected to recover.)

The test results came back Thursday afternoon (a couple hours ago): The new test showed no thickening in the stomach. Whatever had showed up on the CAT scan was transitory -- probably food.

The anxiety of the false alarm (plus jet lag) has so far kept me from appreciating just what good news this all is. We're 2 years, 3 months past Deb's surgery, and there is still no sign of recurrence. Additional lines of defense are forming: the follow-up drug to Gleevec is in Phase 3 trials, and there are also a couple of Gleevec-plus-some-other-drug trials going on.

Tests will continue on a six-month schedule. We do it all again (maybe minus the London trip) in November.