A long-winded post about why we think Rosalie is fine

Rosalie, as usual, was a trooper today.

The short version is that we think she remains cancer free.

But it isn't that easy.

For some reason today Rosalie's MRI goes all the way from the brain down to her sacrum. I did not realize this until today, but apparently in the past they were not scanning the very base of her spine. I asked Rosalie's oncologist why not - she said that the very base of the spine is not a common place for tumor.

So . . . there are two spots showing right near her sacrum. The problem is that we have no prior scans of this very low region. The neuro-radiologist is not worried because there are other things there that could light up such as blood vessel or fat.

You might remember that in March 2008 Rosalie also had a tiny spot show up in the thoracic region of her spine. The neuro-radiologist (in fact the same one as today) pointed it out to our oncologist. Our oncologist was not worried about it because it looked like blood vessel to her. Three months later we decided to scan the entire spine per tumor board's recommendation (instead of scanning just the brain which her protocol would have called for) just to make sure it was fine - it wasn't. The spot was now bigger, it was cancer.

So Dr. Banerjee, Rosalie's oncologist, pointed to the same story. She says that she would absolutely not be worried about today's two dots except for what happened in 2008.

The question now is whether we just do the next scan as scheduled in three months or do one sooner in six weeks.

We are having another neuro-radiologist look at the scan to get his opinion.

One question I have for the neuro-radiologist who read the scan today is why she was more worried with the first spot in 2008 than with these two new spots. I am wondering if it has anything to do with the specific location of these dots. I also want to know if the technician just happened to go that low or if the radiologist ordered MRI for that part of the spine.

This is not the first time we have learned that there is some gray area when it comes to radiology. It is not a perfect science.

In other news, Rosalie was very cold after her MRI. She is always a little cold when she is in recovery. But this time she just never got warm. By the time we went to the clinic she completely had the chills and then worked her way into the fever. Turns out the ped-onc clinic is about the worst place to have a fever since they are used to treating immunosuppressed children who need blood cultures, CBCs, etc . . . They wanted to draw blood just to rule some things out. I was reluctant at first since Rosalie has been off chemo for over a year. But I finally decided that it would be okay. Rosalie is getting to be a harder poke since her veins are a little over-used. It took a couple of tries just to get cultures and a CBC. Her CBC came back totally normal. And with one dose of Tylenol she is back to her regular fun self. We will see what comes of this fever tonight/tomorrow morning.

My personal feeling is that being under anesthesia for her MRI really knocks her body down in a way that allows any dormant virus to come alive. Or maybe just the anesthesia itself confuses her body in a way that makes her get a fever. It is true that some people (kids and adults) get fevers after anesthesia as their lungs can collapse a bit and need to get back in gear when the anesthesia is over.

So nothing cut and dry here. But let's put it this way, if this scan was looking at the exact same portion of her spine that all the others have documented we would be jumping for joy.

We will let you know what we hear from the other neuro-radiologist at the very end of the week.

I sincerely hope that this post is making sense. I have the kids in the background. Mark and I are getting bedtime in gear.

Thanks for being part of Rosalie's team! Here we go Rosalie, here we go!