Tattoos and Test Results

It has been another busy month in Emily’s cancer battle.  After she had the newly affected lymph nodes removed in December, she had to wait extra time for all of the pathology to be completed because of the Arctic Blast.  When the results finally came back we found out that it was the same type of cancer cells as before, but with some mutations.  The tissue samples for the drug resistance testing couldn’t be released until the pathology was done so that testing was seriously delayed and we still have no results.  As far as the specialist in Boston is concerned, it turns out that she does not do phone consultations so if Em wants her opinion, she will have to travel across the country for an appointment.  She is still deciding whether or not to take that trip. 

Emily has decided to pursue radiation as her next course of treatment.  She will go in for a dose every day (M-F) for six weeks, starting this Wednesday.  In order to do radiation, the doctors put a little tattoo mark on the skin in the area to be treated.  Em had to get 4 tattoo dots last week and she was surprised by the how much those little dots hurt.  She said that every part of her body wanted to jump right off of the table to get far away from the needle!  Her teenage desire to get a tattoo is now officially squelched.