Yesterday, Tony went to work to get everything squared away in his department for the week. (We are so grateful that Tony is able to work remotely during the three days of treatment.) I attended the funeral for my cousin, Phil Waggoner 😢🙏🏻, and caught up on laundry. Then we packed and traveled to SLC.
Tony’s AMU nurse today is Jordan. Nurses are extra busy and attentive on long infusion days, as multiple medications are administered over the course of seven hours.
Dr. Graham came up to discuss the results of the PET scan from last week. He provided a copy of the report, and it is very good news! 🎉
Compared with the PET scan from June 18, 2025, there is markedly decreased size and metabolic activity in the enlarged, swollen lymph nodes. The fluid in the spaces around the lungs and heart has resolved.
The Standardized Uptake Value (SUV) on a PET scan is a semi-quantitative measurement that provides a standardized way to compare scans. That number was 23.7 and is now 3.3. 🤗
The SLC VA is a training hospital. Tony’s previous doctor graduated, and Dr. Graham was handed Tony’s file just as this current mess was happening, so he hasn’t had time to comb through the years and years of reports and scans that Tony has on file.
Dr. Graham was very concerned because in Tony’s left retroperitoneum (which has a lot of real estate, like a kidney, adrenal gland, left ureter, part of the pancreas, colon, and aorta), there is persistent hypermetabolic activity in lymph nodes that has increased slightly since the last scan.
You should have seen the relief wash over Dr. Graham’s face when I told him the lymph nodes in that area have been a bit of a mystery, showing up on scans for years already, and that we thought it might be related to the indolent follicular lymphoma Tony was diagnosed with in 2006.
Dr. Graham assured us that if it had been lymphoma, the area would have responded to treatment the way the rest of the lymph nodes did. Now the doctor suspects that area is “reactive”: essentially a hot spot of metabolic activity in the lymph system that can be triggered by stress, certain medications, infections, etc. (This is not typically a cause for concern.) He will look at previous scans for comparison.
We are looking forward to another comfortable night of rest at the Fisher House and are grateful that Tony’s body is responding to the treatments and actively healing. ❤️🩹
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