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...a long winded story not written all that well.

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A cornfield somewhere in Wisconsin: Taken with a Horizon 35mm panormic: Taken just after a spell of severe stomach pains. October.2008 So, here it goes, from the beginning: I've had recurring stomach pains for at least 4 years. For those who know me well, I’m a relatively “high-strung” individual… Ok, maybe I’m borderline OCD? Initially, doctors thought these stomach pains might be related to anxiety? But sometime late in 2007, my pain slowly started to get worse. Well, I thought it must be an ulcer or something? At times, I’d have these attacks that would last for days, stabbing. When the pain started to become more frequent in November of 2008, Andrea forced me to see a doctor. The doctors initially thought it might be an ulcer, or, an issue with my gallbladder. I was sent for an ultrasound in early December 2008… and this is when it all began. During the ultrasound they noted that I might indeed have gallstones, for which an operation would be required. In addition, they n...
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live from Bad Berka, it's PRRT!

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My 68-ga Scans: the full disk is amazing... note the bottom row. See that the large tumor is not illuminated. More to follow. UPDATED (Q/A with Dr. Baum via Email - at end of post) 02/10.2010: Disclaimer: Trying to get to Berlin, so please excuse the typos: Yesterday I had my visit with Dr. Baum and the (68ga PET/CT scan) here in Germany. The results were interesting! After over a year of searching in the US, the primary tumor was found here in Germany in the tail of the pancreas. It is very small, around 1CM in dia. Also, Dr. Baum believes that the largest tumor in the dome of my liver (6.5CM) is actually 90% benign with a metastasis (NET / cancer) growing in the center and edge. This is very rare and Baum has only seen it one other patient in over 4200 cases. We will do more tests (FDG PET Scan) to confirm next week, but it makes a lot of sense. This conclusion was made by how that tumor reads on the scan. It has to do with receptor uptake, etc. Others could probably explain it bett...
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We're headed home...

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The Statue of Liberty: A perfect symbol of freedom, long journeys, and triumph over struggle. This a photo post card I found a month ago... now part of the collection. Well, we are headed back to Chicago tomorrow (Tuesday) morning! We met with Dr. Botha this morning and he gave me the OK to take off, if I felt up to it. Well, I'm ready to get home. We're not out of the woods, I'm only running on 30% of a liver and my WBC is high. He's not worried though. We just need to keep an eye out for ascites (excess fluid build up in the body cavity...). If this were the happen, I've have a fever, a ton of pain, swelling and general badness. The fix is basically being admitted to a hospital to drain the area. This happens in about 10-15% of patients, but if it were to happen, it can easily be treated in Chicago. I won't have my next set of scans for a few months when we will look at how the liver grew. Immediately, I'll just need to monitor labs and take it easy. T...
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