Today I had my consultation with the oncologist … we’ll call him Dr. Onc. Again with the paperwork. I’m finding that absolutely everyone I talk with that’s connected with the medical group asks me my name and birthdate and then compares my info with what’s on the paperwork they’re holding.

I first met with Dr. Onc’s assistant. We went through the whole history of how I first figured out I had a problem up to what was currently happening. She made the comment that she’d been reading up since getting the pathology report and that this type of melanoma has a tendency to reoccur more often than others. Hmm, I really could have done quite nicely without that little piece of information. I know there’s this whole thing about keeping the patient informed but it makes it harder to maintain my balloon of optimism!

She left to update Dr. Onc. and he eventually came into the room. I gave him the a copy of the instructions Dr. Opth had given me (I had mistakenly given the original to Dr. PCP). We talked a bit about what’s been going on. He looked at my eye and told me that he wants to have me checked out to ensure there isn’t any cancer elsewhere in my body. He said retina melanoma (which he assured me I did NOT have) often moves to the liver fairly quickly.

He’s ordering an MRI that checks out my head. The CT (aka CaT) scan looks at the torso. The PET CT is a little different because they radiate my body and then inject glucose. The glucose goes to the places in my body where’s there’s activity. The scan shows where the glucose has gone. The idea is that it shouldn’t be going anywhere they don’t expect to see it. If it’s elsewhere, it’s possible that it’s cancer.

He completed a form and they sent me out to talk with a scheduler. As I was waiting for the scheduler, I noticed he had marked each scan “ASAP.” Wow, another confidence builder! ha!

I was able to scan my MRI for the following Tuesday, 11/4, at 7pm. We were able to combine the CT and PET CT scans for Thursday, 11/6, morning. She then gave me a multi-page itinerary and instructions. Nothing special for the MRI. I was supposed to stay on a high-protein diet with 12 hours of the CT/PET CT scans, with no food 6 hours prior to the scans.

A couple of items on the list made me curious. It said I could drink diet soda, but to watch out for caffeinated and de-caffeinated ones. Is there a third choice I haven’t heard about? I was also to avoid mints. At first I couldn’t figure that one out but eventually I realized they were probably talking about breath mints that have sugar in them, which would make them a no-no.