I finally got a chance to go over my PET scan with my...

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]After finding what I had 5 years ago, the chance of making it over a year was [music] very slim.

[00:00:06]>> I'm I'm very surprised you're still alive today.

[00:00:09]>> Yeah.

[00:00:09]>> I'll tell you that.

[00:00:11]>> So, I had a PET scan done last week. I got the results, and I had to wait to talk to my oncologist to verify everything, and I did that yesterday while doing getting ready for my 75th [music] round of chemo. So, want to kind of go over them with you for anybody that cares.

[00:00:24]Um I've been doing this cancer battle for just like a couple days longer than 5 years.

[00:00:31]Uh this is my 75th round of chemo. I started off I had stage 4 colon cancer with innumerable [music] mets to the liver, meaning too many to count. I had so much tumor in my 85% of my liver was covered in tumors.

[00:00:42]Now, to compare that to where I am right now after all this chemo, after multiple abdominal surgeries, multiple liver ablations, and everything, the amount of cancer that I have I have in my body is minuscule. I have one tumor on my adrenal gland.

[00:00:58]My liver after the last 6 months from my last ablation has remained [music] clear, and I am so excited about that because my liver has been my heart spot.

[00:01:06]It was the one thing they said, "Your liver's never going to come clear. It's never going to get taken care of. It's always going to be a a thing. There's always going to be these seeds that pop up." And over the last several months, I've been on a lower chemo dose because of traveling and the holidays, >> [music] >> and I've been only on a panitumumab. I didn't have a have a first-line Folfox or Folfiri for [music] several months.

[00:01:25]The last time I did that, I had growth in my liver. I had spots pop up that weren't there before. I had >> [music] >> things that were questionable got brighter. This PET scan showed my liver is still completely clear.

[00:01:36]And that alone is the biggest win I could have ever hoped for. Because like I said, when I got started, my liver was 85% covered. Like here's a screenshot of what my uh my very first PET scan looked like. All of that yellow, that's all the cancer. Like it was terrible, and I was basically told, "If you didn't catch this now, if you you do something about this, you're not going to make it a year. Your liver is going to shut down, you're going to be done. So, the liver is something that I have been focusing on for the past 5 years. It took me 4 years just to have my primary tumor removed. It's a whole 'nother story.

[00:02:06]But, most of the time we were focused on keeping the liver under control.

[00:02:10]And it looks like we've got there. We finally got to the point where the liver is under control. Now, the the one tumor that I have in my body is a 2.2 cm tumor that has popped up on my adrenal gland. This popped up all the way back in July of last year before I had my last ablation.

[00:02:26]And it showed that in November, it said it had resolved itself. And now, it's back again. Which means it didn't fully go away before.

[00:02:35]And over that little bit of time over the last couple of months, that spot had enough strength to kind of come back to life. So, what we're doing is we're going to do several more rounds of chemo.

[00:02:44]Uh then we're going to scan again and see if the chemo has taken care of it again. But, more than likely what I'm going to have done is I'm going to have that adrenal gland radiated or surgically removed or ablated. Because even like my oncologist says that, and I've talked about before, having things surgically removed is always going to be a little bit better >> [music] >> than the chemo. In fact, I think it's going to be a lot better. If you can have that [ __ ] cut out, like you're going to get a lot further than just relying on the chemo alone.

[00:03:10]So, the future for what I'm doing now basically I'm back on full fury with panitumumab for several more rounds.

[00:03:17]We're going to scan again. We're going to watch my CEA levels cuz over the last since November until now, my CEA went from about 12 to 16 to 28.

[00:03:26]And right now, yesterday it's back down to 24, which means I'm coming back down now again. And we're just going to monitor that. And we think that that adrenal gland is the one that's doing [music] that to my system right now.

[00:03:37]So, that's where I'm at. I am extremely excited. And one of the things that my oncologist said to me is >> [music] >> I was I was telling him about, you know, where I've come with how my liver was and not barely not making a year. And he cut me off and he said, >> [music] >> "I'm surprised you're still alive right now.

[00:03:53]And as much as that sounds grim, that was some of the best things you could ever have an oncologist tell you.

[00:04:00]Is the fact that what we've been doing is working, [music] your persistence, the the taking care of everything, the fact that you're still here right now is mind-blowing to him and to some of his colleagues.

[00:04:13]And I have to take the wins, even though I still have cancer and I know I'm still going to have to deal with this for for quite a bit longer with, you know, chemos and surgeries, ablations, things like that, and the possibility of something else popping up here and there.

[00:04:25]To be where I'm at right now, I just I'm thankful for everything.

[00:04:31]I really have no complaints.

[00:04:34]So, what I'm going to do now is I'm going to follow this video up right here in a few minutes with my meeting with my oncologist. I took the chunks out, [music] I recorded the thing, obviously not him on camera, uh but I recorded it so that you can hear kind of how I talked to him, some of the things we talked about, um and the all the the stuff that we went over, the adrenal gland. There was a retroperitoneal lymph node that had a very little bit of a glow above baseline, but we we think that's just because I did it so close to my chemo, and that's in the retroperitoneal, that's where your uh everything flushes from your, you know, your liver and your kidneys and all that stuff kind of flushes through those lymph nodes. Very good chance that was just inflammation. We're going to keep an eye on that, too, but we're not worried about that.

[00:05:17]But the part where he said, you know, liver being clear was a win, and where he said that uh he's surprised I'm still alive.

[00:05:26]So, if you want to watch further, from here on out is about 5 or 6 minutes of uh of that, and enjoy. Love to know what you think. But keep [ __ ] going.

[00:05:34]Remember, you're stronger, you're more resilient, you can handle a hell of a lot more than you think you can. [music] Keep [ __ ] fighting. Keep [ __ ] going.

[00:05:41]We'll see you. All right, so let's look at your scan here. So, let's do so that the the the that they commented on was your adrenal glands.

[00:05:52]>> Yeah.

[00:05:53]>> Not much in the lungs, so that that's good. Again, there was there used to be kind of this little the kind of right there, but it's pretty dull.

[00:06:01]So so now so the thing that they see right here is so this guy right here it looks like it's in your lung, but it actually is probably there's a spot right so overlap.

[00:06:15]>> Do you know?

[00:06:15]>> You know, so so there's a spot and and it's going to be easier to see basically this thing right here.

[00:06:23]>> Mhm.

[00:06:24]>> You know that you know it it was maybe not as full here and it was probably like that back in July.

[00:06:30]>> Mhm.

[00:06:31]>> Yeah, so it's not very big. I mean, if I were to measure that it's uh >> They had 2.2 I think.

[00:06:37]>> Yeah, yeah. You know, so it's about little less than an inch.

[00:06:40]>> Yeah.

[00:06:40]>> Okay. [singing] So it sits right above your kidney. So [music] here's your kidney right here, so the adrenal glands sits right on top of that.

[00:06:47]You know, but really you know, it was that spot and then they commented on kind of some I think low-grade uptake in the lymph nodes.

[00:07:00]>> Yeah, in the retroperitoneal.

[00:07:03]>> You know, I mean I I think that's you know questionable in all honesty.

[00:07:07]>> Yeah.

[00:07:07]>> Um I wouldn't say for sure, but you know, it's certainly something that you know, we're going to monitor going forward.

[00:07:15]>> So this little green guy right there.

[00:07:17]>> Yeah.

[00:07:18]My thing that I was excited about is >> [music] >> liver.

[00:07:21]>> Exactly. You have nothing in the liver.

[00:07:23]>> That's the thing that I was like, "Holy [music] crap."

[00:07:26]>> Yep. I agree.

[00:07:27]>> Even after dropping down from FOLFIRI to just panitumumab over >> [music] >> those 3 months and not having a liver flare-up of any sort.

[00:07:37]>> [music] >> That kind of caught me off guard.

[00:07:39]>> Yeah, I would agree. I would have figured if I were to bet, I would have bet that something in the liver would have lit up.

[00:07:44]>> Yeah.

[00:07:44]>> You know.

[00:07:45]>> So, that that's I'll I'll I'll agree with that. I think that's a win.

[00:07:49]You know, but you know, with the rising CEA [music] and and the scan, I think hey, maybe are we seeing the adrenal gland that was maybe there before, got calmed down, but is maybe kind of slowly waking up a little bit. Yes, but [music] now going back on full fury, maybe that will calm it down. And that could be something that could be easily radiated [singing] down the road.

[00:08:07]>> Yeah. Or I Yeah, I was looking into it.

[00:08:08]I know I could have it I could have it removed cuz you have two and your body balances out. I could have it ablated. I could have it radiated or whatever.

[00:08:16]>> So, there are options.

[00:08:17]>> See what happens with the chemo.

[00:08:18]>> You know, I think we >> [music] >> we do what we're doing, you know, watch hopefully they watch the CEA go down, you know, do chemo for a couple months, and then get another scan, and then see where we're at. So.

[00:08:29]>> Cuz the new CEA coming in yet?

[00:08:30]>> Not yet.

[00:08:31]>> That is That's what we're cooking.

[00:08:33]>> It's cooking.

[00:08:34]So, yeah, I agree, your labs are good.

[00:08:36]You know, I don't think we're having too many major side effects of the chemo, [music] you know, I mean, yes, the rash, maybe some hallucinations, but your quality of life [music] I still would say it's pretty good.

[00:08:44]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:08:45]>> You know, and and I say let's you know, re-escalate, try to >> [music] >> you know, smash this cancer down, and >> You don't have to say that.

[00:08:50]>> You have a such a small amount of cancer in your body. Like, yeah, I'm not surprised you don't feel it. You know, yeah, you what, 4 years ago you were feeling it, right?

[00:08:57]>> Five 5 years 5 years. Just 5 years on the last week.

[00:09:01]>> You were feeling it then, but now you're not because there's such little but there's just these pesky seeds that are not going away.

[00:09:06]>> Yeah. But you know what? If you look at the liver after this last PET scan, um I mean, those seeds have stayed away from that so far.

[00:09:16]>> Yeah, I agree.

[00:09:16]>> So, I think everything we've done with surgeries and ablations and chemo and stacking it and doing this has definitely taken its toll.

[00:09:25]Um But yeah, I uh I don't know. So, okay.

[00:09:30]So, right now, probably not I I was curious what the next CEA says. If it has gone down from what was 28 was the last one? If it went down from that, then that means this last full theory is having an effect. Cuz we had that adrenal gland popped up on a PET scan and joy.

[00:09:44]>> Yeah, I I I know that I remember that.

[00:09:46]>> And then and cuz we talked about, oh, that's not a big deal. Don't worry about it. We can have it radiated. Like and you kind of set me at set my mind at ease about that.

[00:09:55]>> But that was before my ablation.

[00:09:56]>> Mhm.

[00:09:57]>> And I still had the ablation done. And then we went back on the panitumumab full theory.

[00:10:02]And then the uh it had said I remember this scan in November. It said [music] that the uh adrenal had resolved itself.

[00:10:12]>> Mhm.

[00:10:13]>> And I was like, sweet. [music] Now it's back again. So I'm guessing it didn't fully resolve. It just kind of went It went to sleep.

[00:10:19]>> I I yeah, I I tell patients the chemo chemo usually not sometimes maybe there's some exceptions. Chemo usually does not get rid of all of the cancer, [music] you know, the chemo's going to calm it down, but it's usually surgery, ablation, radiation that really stamps out [music] >> Yeah.

[00:10:35]>> you know, >> [snorts] >> so that's where you use the chemo to start with to shrink it down, but then you usually got to do something >> Yeah.

[00:10:40]>> one of those three things to to really definitively get rid of it.

[00:10:43]>> How long would we wait to see before possibly doing a a radiation ablation?

[00:10:50]>> what I would say is let's let's the next couple times I mean let's trend [music] that CEA.

[00:10:55]>> Yeah.

[00:10:55]>> I mean if if the CEA goes like 28 and then 22 and then 16, I'd be like, okay, let's let's give it a couple months, but I mean if it goes 28 to to 10 to to five, >> Yeah.

[00:11:09]>> you know, then I'm like, okay, well, you know, maybe you know, let's But then at the same time you can argue well that hey, we got a good momentum going. Let's really follow this thing down. So I'm tending to think at least two to three months. Let's see what the CEA does and then we'll decide on the scan.

[00:11:24]>> I don't I hate the >> I know. I know.

[00:11:25]>> the wait to see the thought >> the period of the the unknown, >> [laughter] >> the unknown. I know it's anxiety provoking.

[00:11:30]>> No, I know.

[00:11:30]>> I don't know, man. If I had a crystal ball, I I would tell you hey, this is going to happen.

[00:11:34]>> I I know. I know I but that's that's one of the things I specialize in is the not having anxiety because because I'm I'm good with this. Like it's and I I look at it in >> [music] >> the whole terms and I I did a video yesterday or day before I said you know I I mean there was after finding what I had 5 years ago the chance of making it over a year was very slim.

[00:12:00]>> I'm very surprised you're still alive today.

[00:12:02]>> Yeah.

[00:12:05]And right now I could like completely stop and probably live another 2 3 years, you know? Cuz I have so little cancer in my body. Yeah, it would grow, it would get all that stuff, but if I really wanted to I was like tired of doing this I'd be like I get 2 3 more years. I could just stop right now.

[00:12:21]Uh-uh, definitely not.