This is NOT for blog ratings!

The saga continues...

I carried two phones around with me today, waiting for news. I even made the mistake of Googling GBM in the spine, and freaking myself out with the very poor prognosis for that situation. I buried myself in work and even a little bit of family history searching to keep me from going nuts.

Finally, when I was in a phone meeting with the FDA this afternoon, I was interrupted by a call from my neuro-oncologist's office. Dr. Fink wants to meet with me in the morning, and I should bring the films from this latest MRI.

When my heart started beating again it seemed as though my orthopedic surgeon had referred me back to Dr. Fink after getting the MRI results, and she was merely wanting to understand what was going on. It sounded reassuring rather than panicked.

I called the orthopedic surgeon's office to arrange to pick up the MRI films, and I also asked why I was being referred to Dr. Fink about this. The voice on the other end said she would call him and ask. A while later he called and apologized profusely for not getting to me before Dr. Fink's office did. (It was bad form, indeed.)

He said that the radiologist is still "highly suspicious" of GBM recurrence in the spine. He said there was a large mass in the sacral area. Since neither of them have expertise in GBM, they want Dr. Fink to get involved.

When I picked up the films at his office, I also picked up a copy of the radiology report for the MRI study that was done on my pelvis and sacrum a week prior to this latest nightmare. That report said that the sacrum and lumbar spine were "grossly unremarkable." ("Totally normal" isn't medically geeky enough, but that's what it meant.) It seems quite strange that I could go from "grossly unremarkable" to "large mass" in a matter of days. So I feel very reassured about putting all of this in front of Dr. Fink to see what she thinks we should do about this. I'm hoping that our visit will result in some answers instead of more questions.

I also feel reassured about putting all of this into the Lord's hands and letting Him do what should be done about this. I trust that all is ultimately well, regardless of what is happening right now.

I promise I'm not doing this for blog ratings. But stay tuned!