My PET scan results

I went for my PET scan today. I have been having increasing discomfort in my lower chest and anticipated that my posterior mediastinal mass would be larger and pressing on my distal esophagus causing the symptoms. I was hoping there would be no evidence of new disease. This Merkel Cell carcinoma can grow as fast as any malignancy I know about.
I had to be on a sugar-free diet for 24 hours prior to the examination. Last night, we had Gary, Dana, Eva, Sara and Bel over for a mini-Seder. I could not enjoy much of the cooking, but everyone had a good time.
No breakfast this morning. I arrived for my scans at 8:15. They put me in a very cold room with a heating pad on my arm to start the IV. Of course, in the cold, your veins constrict, but the IV was started without incident. My blood sugar was 105, a good number. They injected the radioisotope without incident and then I had to wait 1 hour for it to spread through my body. It concentrates in areas of high metabolic activity, such as tumors, healing surgery sites, brain and kidneys. There was alot of activity in my brain, probably, like Cassius from Julius Caesar, I think too much.
After the hour, it is 35 minutes to be scanned with the warning to stay perfectly still to avoid image degradation. Of course, as soon as the scans began, my ear and my nose began to itch. I needed to clear my throat, and the blowing of cool air over me for ventilation made my face itchy and gave me the urge to sneeze. 35 minutes seemed like hours. I left at about 11:30 AM and returned at 2:00 PM to review the results with Dr. Dan Stobbe. He is a longtime colleague and friend.
Below are sample images from the scans.

The image on the bottom right is a coronal image. The areas in black show high levels of activity. The brain at the top, the bladder at the bottom, and the tumor in the middle. The image at the top left is a color rendition in the axial plane showing my heart in gray, my lungs in black, and the tumor in yellow in front of the spine which shows up in white. The esophagus shows up on other images, pushed to the left. This is the cause of my symptoms.The tumor now measures 5.8x2.6x5.0 cm. On March 17, it was 2.6x3.8x3.7. The original measurements last November were 4.5x3.7x3.5.
There was no other convincing evidence of tumor growth.
So what does this mean to me?
The good news is that there is no new disease. This mass is causing my symptoms and there is no unexpected finding. It can be followed with serial PET scans to monitor the effectiveness of treatment.
Should the chemo shrink the mass, it might be removable by laparoscopic technique assuming no new disease develops during the chemo.
The bad news is that the experimental treatment with a small radiation dose was not effective, although the mass did initially shrink.
I received a call from Dr. Flam's office delaying the start of chemo to next Wednesday.
After visiting Dr Stobbe, I went to see my CPA who has my tax audit under control.
Some good news. I have made it to within 1-2 points of the 2500 I need to become a Gold Life Master at Bridge. I will get there before the Chemo begins.
I hope to post again to describe the insertion of the port from the patient point of view. I have inserted many ports, so the difference in perspective should be interesting.
This morning, there were flowers on our doorstep. Beautiful roses.
Thanks Bonna.