Part II story continues..... (中文翻譯在下面)

 

7/16/2013 - PET Scan and MRI day.  Another first experience-- PET scan for my whole body and MRI for my brain only. Everything went fast & smoothly. I went back to work for the rest of the afternoon. After I finished PET scan and was waiting for the MRI, I bumped into Dr. Forouzannia who performed my breast biopsy. I told Dr. Forouzannia that I may be allergic to the surgical tape or was possibly burnt because I had a growing blister on my left breast. I showed Dr. Forouzannia my picture and he gave me some medical supplies and showed me how to take care of it. LOL! 

 

7/17/2013 - No doctor appointment. Just another regular work day. 

 

7/18/2013 - PET Scan and MRI Result Day.  Dr. Sharma came into the room with the opening line like this: "The MRI of your brain is fine. You have a good accounting brain." (Then I know that my PET Scan is not fine because Dr. Sharma only mentioned 1 good test result not 2.) Dr. Sharma said from my PET Scan films, the radiologist saw 3 small nodules in my lung, 2 nodules inside my right lower lung lobe and 1 spot inside my left lung. Then again, without a lung biopsy, we can't determine if these are cancer cells or not. In order to find out the results as soon as possible, I decide to do lung biopsy as soon as possible. Luckily, I didn't eat anything after 7:30AM this morning and Dr. Sharma was able to squeeze me in for a CT guided biopsy in the afternoon.

Dr. Dang D. Nugyen, a radiologist, performed the lung biopsy for me at St. Jude Medicare Center. Dr. Nguyen is also very nice and friendly. Compared with my experience of the breast biopsy, I feel more uncomfortable with lung biopsy.  I laid face down becuase the biopsy needle had to go into my right lung from my back. To get prep up, I was in and out of CT machine (holding my breath) for more than 20 times to make sure the actual spot for needle insertion. Finally Dr. Nguyen located the spot and numbed me with local anesthetic. When Dr. Nguyen inserted the needle, I instantly felt something poke through my lung, and then felt something weird in my throat. I wanted to cough it out but was afraid a cough may possibly move the needle. After Dr. Nguyen inserted the needle and took some samples, the samples were immediately sent to the pathology office to make sure whether the cell samples are sufficient to provide an analysis for abnormal cells. While we were waiting for the confirmation from the pathology office, the biopsy needle was still in my lung. \\>,<//

Finally after a few minutes, the pathology office confirmed the quantity of the samples and Dr. Nguyen took the needle out of my back. I was in pain after the biopsy for several hours.  

 

7/19/2013 - Dr. Nguyen said I should take the day off on Friday but I felt fine when I woke up in the morning and decided to go work instead.  I received a phone call around 11:15AM from Dr. Sharma's office and was told that Dr. Sharma wanted to see me at 12PM.  I quickly called Simon and we left for the doctor's office.  We were really nervous about the biopsy results.  We still hoped that the small  nodules inside my lungs were BT and not cancer. Unfortunately, Dr. Sharma confirmed the abnormal cells that Dr. Nguyen took from my right lung was cancer and it's the same as the breast cancer cell.  It means I not only have breast cancer but my cancer spreads to my lung. WOW! It's now a metastatic disease and I automatically become a stage IV cancer patient. I was really shocked in Dr. Sharma's office and couldn't say much. We had already prepared ourselves for the worst situation and it hit the bottom today. Simon and I immediately decided that I would undergo chemo treatment right away. We do not want the cancer to go out of control and want to take action NOW. 

Chemo therapy is scheduled to be on July 25, 2013. There are a lot of things that I need to take care of prior to the first chemo, I returned to the office with this shocking and devastating news but simply wrapped up my work and took 2 weeks off.

 

PicsArt_1380178280085   

(Uppder Left: I was in the recovery room after Lung Biopsy; Upper Right: My frist wheel chair experience after Lung BIopsy; Bottm Left: Knott's Barry Farm Day after my Breast Biopsy. I had to protect my breasts from that crazy ride; Bottm Right: This is the worst hospital meal I have ever had after Lung Biopsy.)

(左上圖:做完肺切片,在休息室;右上圖:肺切片完出院,第一次坐輪椅;左下圖:胸部切片完後一天去遊樂園坐雲霄飛車,弄得我胸部痛死啦!右下圖:這可是我吃過最難吃的醫院餐,上次去醫院陪表妹生產都還有牛排可以吃內!)

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7/16/2013 - 今天是正子掃描跟腦部斷層檢查日(在此不多做介紹此兩種檢查,網路上都查得到)。這兩種檢查也是我第一次做,先做正子檢查,要打顯影劑(有輻射),稍做休息一下就躺在機器上開始拍照了,過程大約十五分鐘左右,很快就結束了。之後被帶去做腦部斷層,這個就攝影也挺快的,躺在機器上,頭部架設一個好像美式足球運動員戴的鋼盔的罩子,被推進大大的機器幾次,攝影也結束了。在做完正子檢查之後,我在等待區等待,剛好遇到上星期幫我做胸部切片的醫生,Dr. Forouzannia,我馬上就跟他開玩笑說我是不是上次做切片的時候被燙到還是是對膠帶或敏,不然怎麼水泡長這麼大一顆在左胸上! 水泡裡面還有血水呢!給了醫生看了些我自拍的照片,醫生拿了些紗布跟另一種膠布給我並教我怎麼照顧。折騰一早上之後,下午回到公司上班了!

7/17/2013 - 沒消沒息的工作天

7/18/2013 - 今天要看正子掃描檢查跟腦部斷層的報告!Dr. Sharma一進門劈頭就說,妳的腦部斷層報告很好,腦子很健康,有會計師的腦子!呵呵~我沒開心的太早因為我心裡想都不用想就知道正子掃描報告應該就是有不好,所以醫生才沒一開始就一起提到。果然不出我所料,正子報告有顯示出其他可能病症。放射科的醫生在看完我的正子掃描片之後發現在我的兩邊肺部似乎有不正常細胞的亮點反應(註一),左邊肺部有一個(不大顆),右邊肺部有兩個 (不大顆,其中有一個非常小)。不過要判斷是不是癌細胞,得做切片才能知道。為了盡快能夠知道檢查結果,Dr. Sharma盡快幫我安排做肺部切片。剛好我今天早上吃完早飯之後就沒有在進食(至少空腹六個小時),所以很幸運可以擠進一個下午時段來做切片。中午迅速回到公司跟老闆交代一下,下午又回到醫院準備肺切片。


幫我做肺切片的是Dr. Dang D. Nguyen,一位年約四十出頭的越南醫生,可能是華人的關係,我心情大好!Dr. Nguyen很風趣,講話比較不像Dr. Sharma一樣很溫柔就是了。因為左邊肺部的細胞太靠近心臟,不適合做切片(我看是怕針插錯),所以醫生選定右肺的其中一顆來收取細胞。與胸部切片比較起來,肺切片感受比較不同也比較不舒服。肺因為是一個充滿氣體的一個內臟(不像胸部是體外),為了不讓肺功能在切片後受到傷害,通常都是用很細的針次進肺部來吸取細胞。確認插針位置也是非常重要,所以整個切片過程都是要用CT儀器來輔助,並且全程都會檢查血壓,心跳來確保病人的身體情況。在開始準備時,我進進出出CT儀器不下二十次,配合醫生的吸氣跟吐氣指示來確認插針位置,終於在確認位置之後,醫生在我右背上做了記號(我得全程趴著因為針要從我右後背插入),之後又再進了CT儀器確認位置。等最後終於確定後,醫生幫我打了局部麻藥後並要我閉氣(不能全身麻醉,因為全身麻醉後就不能配合醫生指示來調整呼吸),之後針就這麼插進肺啦!那種感覺很奇怪,以為麻藥打了會沒感覺,不過當針插入肺的那一瞬間,我是有感覺的,馬上喉嚨就卡著一口氣,會想要咳嗽但又怕咳得太大把針給弄歪了。醫生快速的取了細胞後,把細胞馬上送到組織學辦公室去確認所抽取的可疑細胞是否足夠來化驗。在等待的同時,那細細的針還是硬生生的插在我的背上,直到組織學辦公室說OK才拔了出來。做完之後我整個胸腔不舒服,連要翻個身也痛,原本還想要忍住不打止痛,最後還是得屈服!被推到休息室觀察,Dr. Nguyen也有來探望我,稍做休息之後就可以離開了,我又再度被輪椅給推出來啦!回到家之後馬上躺著休息一直到九點才醒過來吃東西。肺切片給我的感想是,病人一定不能太緊張,因為緊張會影響呼吸跟心跳再者會影響插針,雖然我盡量讓自己保持不要太緊張的狀態,不過在插針的那瞬間還是很緊張,身體也因為有個侵入物體馬上有反應,切片完後的身體是整個痛跟整個酸的難受。                                                                            

 

7/19/2013 - 前一天做完肺切片,醫生說我應該要休息一天,不過今天早上起來發現我身體還好,不想躺在家裡休息,就決定去上班看看同事。大約在早上十一點十五分左右我收到Dr. Sharma助理打來的電話,要去我醫院一趟,我趕緊讓Simon來公司接我一起去聽報告。在等待的時間是很漫長的,心裡也很緊張,反正已經做了最壞的打算(但心裡還是希望在肺裡的怪東西是肺結核,而不是癌),等Dr. Sharma進診療室跟我們揭曉在肺裡的是===癌===,而且癌的細胞跟胸部癌的細胞是同一類型。我當下聽到也紅了眼眶,雖然一直不想去想,但這終究是個事實。所以簡單來說,因為擴散的關係,我的癌症是第四期,聽起來好像很末期,預後會很差的感覺,不過我覺得胸部跟肺部的癌細胞都發現得早,現在馬上治療會沒事的!當下我們也就訂好第一次化療的時間在7/25/2013,下午我也回到公司跟老闆告假也告訴他們這個駭人的消息。接下來有一些事情要處理,幾乎每天都要跑醫院,所以請了兩個禮拜的假。

 

PS:我這聰明的癌細胞經由血液跑到肺啦!!我總覺得我很幸運,因為我的醫生很仔細右多做其他檢查來確認任何可能的癌細胞轉移情況,所以能夠早發現,不然通常除非咳嗽咳到一種不可收拾的地步,不然我應該也不會警覺到癌細胞擴散到肺,更何況我又不抽菸。

 

 

(註一:正子掃描 (PET SCAN)  的基本原理,是先給予病患注入正子追蹤劑,而追蹤劑會集中跑到代謝功能異常的特定細胞內,再由正子掃描儀造影得到影像。以目前應用最廣泛的癌症檢查而言,最常使用的正子追蹤劑為正子標記之去氧葡萄糖。葡萄糖是人體內大部份細胞代謝時必需的原料,所以正子標記去氧葡萄糖會被人體內正常的細胞吸收。然而,研究發現,某些惡性的腫瘤細胞比正常的細胞代謝速率高出更多,所以會比正常細胞吸收更多的正子標記去氧葡萄糖。因此注入正子標記葡萄糖後接受全身性的正子掃描,便可早期偵測出惡性癌細胞的存在。出處http://kelwww.cgmh-mi.com/examnm/exampet

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