It's Naht uh Toomah!!!

For those a little confused, the title of this blog entry needs to be said loudly with a heavy Austrian accent... Moving on...

We have received copies of the latest CT scans Lauri had taken at MD Anderson. I have done some modification to the images to show you the important parts, but if you get confused, please send an email or comment, and we will do our best to shed some light.

To understand CT scan images, you first need to understand your viewpoint. You are looking at a picture of a cross-section of Lauri, viewed from her feet toward her head. Lauri is laying on her back, facing the top of the image. Add all this together, and Lauri's right hand side is on the left side of the image. Clear as mud? Don't worry, it took forever for us to figure it out...

First, here are the comparisons of Lauri's scan taken in September 2007, before the two surgeries, and the one taken in January 2008, after the surgeries. For the Left Lung, recall there was only one tumor:


For the Right Lung, there were two tumors to be removed. Here is the first one:


And here is the second one:


Now, as you know, we were told after the scan in January 2008 that Lauri may have another spot that we might have to worry about. Here is the image referred to in the Radiology report, with the spot in question circled. Note that the spot was only 2mm in size, so you can barely see it.


We went back to MD Anderson in March to have another scan, to see if this spot had grown. Clearly, in the scan below, you can see that it didn't grow. In fact, you can't even see it unless you zoom in, and even then it's hard to pick out.


Lauri and I had our doubts about this whole spot thing. We went back and looked at the scan done in November 2007, after the first surgery but before the second, and looked for the spot. We found the area, and the spot looks exactly the same as it does in the January scan.


So, in our less than expert opinion, we believe this spot is nothing to be concerned about. In fact, it looks like it has always been there, and always will be. So going back to the beginning of this long-winded essay...It's Naht Uh Toomah!!!

There, I said it...