Upon further review . . .

. . . all is well!

Rosalie's doctors (the neuro-radiologist, her neuro-oncologist, and her radiation oncologist) gave us this news after they had reviewed the scans together as a team.

That's really all we need to say, but if you want a few more details keep reading.
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Earlier this morning we learned that the PET scan did show an "anomaly," or an area of higher metabolic activity. The important question was whether or not this anomaly matched up with the anomaly on Rosalie's MRI.

Her doctors say that these do not match up. This means that the area that "lit up" on Rosalie's MRI is not metabolically active - meaning not cancerous.

The recommendation is to continue with her regularly scheduled MRIs of the brain and spine every three months.

But now we also have this anomaly from the PET scan to think about. The anomaly is small, 8mm, and is located left of center in the thoracic region. It might indicate a bruise, a virus, bacteria - any number of things. They asked us if she has been sick recently because this might indicate viral or bacterial activity. We will talk to the oncologists next week to see if she needs another PET/CT scan in the future to see if this spot is still there. They did not sound overly concerned about this spot, but did indicate that we should consider following up. For now we are just celebrating.

I think this episode is a reminder of how difficult is can be to diagnose what is going on in the body. I'm also reminded that the more you seek the more you'll find.

Thanks for being a part of our team.

Now we'll take a deep breath and let the summer begin!