Hi everyone! I again have to thank you all for so many wonderful messages of encouragement and support. The many, many personal prayers and Temple prayers are so very appreciated! I cannot thank you enough.

I was able to pay a visit to my place of work yesterday, the Urology Clinic at the University of Utah. It is so wonderful to be treated like family by my co-workers. The hugs and expressions of genuine concern and care are cherished. Everyone there refueled my energy cells.

While there, I took the liberty to look at my PET scans, MRI and CT scans and then got the bright idea to use my digital camera to take a couple of pictures that I could share with you so that you have an idea of what is going on. First, on the left here is a general image from the second PET scan that I had. A PET scan is a combination of nuclear medicine and CT imaging. You'll see a a large football looking thing in the area if my right arm pit (the picture is as I am lying on my back and you are looking down on me). This is the tumor. I has grown some as I reported last time. It is bright in color because the cancer cells are very active and the radioactive stuff they inject is drawn to areas of high cellular activity. Other areas that light up are the heart and kidneys. You can also see that I have a pretty significant scoliosis. That goes well with my several herniated disks that I have nursed for years.

This next image at the left is another view of the PET scan at a different level in my body which still shows some of the primary tumor in my arm pit but this view also shows the lesion in my spine that is now the latest development of the cancer progression. It kind of looks like a miniature tree there in the middle of my spine.

I am sorry that these are not better images, but I did simply point my camera at the screen and shoot the picture with my fingers crossed. Not bad I'd say.

Even though there are lesions in my lungs, they are very small and scattered mostly in the left lung field. Only one was viewed in the right lung. I couldn't get a good image of them with my camera.


This is the last PET scan image I'll show you today. This is just one more image, but is a little closer and at a level where you can see the tumor very well. It is close to my ribs, the scapula and in other views, the upper arm bone. The lugs are the big black areas because they are full of air. In the middle of the lungs, you can see part of the heart.

This stuff is pretty fascinating. The pink/orange color is how the computer imaging displays the radioactive stuff flowing through my body. Again, the active cells show more color. The yellow/white area in the tumor is the most active area in my body.



Now, here is an MRI image. This is totally different than CT or PET scans and I am really lousy at reading them, but I do have a good idea what I am looking at in these images.

First, this one on the left is an image through my body from the left side, looking towards my right side. So, the left of the picture is the front of my chest, the right side of the picture is toward my back. It's kind of like someone cut me from top to bottom and laid me open to look at.

In the center of the picture is a globular mass. That is the tumor. This picture is right through the middle of the tumor. It looks pretty complicated to me.


This is the last image I took to share with you. Again, this is an MRI image. This time from the front. All the way to the right is a big dark area, this is my right lung. It's black because it is mostly air. Moving left from that, you can see some rectangular structures kind of stacked on top of each other. These are my ribs. next to that is the tumor again. And then to the left of that would be my right upper arm.

I am no radiologist so I can't offer any definitive opinion about the nature of the tumor. I can only go by what I read in their reports and what my docs tell me. As I reported on my last post, the tumor had enlarged some and the lesion in my spine had increased in size as well.

I'll be starting radiation therapy this Thursday and I look forward to getting some significant results from that therapy. I'll keep you posted on the details of that experience.

Thank you all again for all you do. Your messages, prayers and everything else are sincerely appreciated. I have no way to repay anyone except to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Jim