...Essentially Not Visible...

As I mentioned earlier this week ... my dad had an MRI on Mon. The MRI was to look at the pancreas and see if the tumor had shrunk any.

On Wed I found out my dad had been hospitalized due to what was a potentially life-threatening infection. The infection was caused by a blockage in the stent that was placed in his bile duct about 5 months ago. He had been running a fever and it's good he went in when he finally did...his body was on it's way to being sepsis.

Yesterday they went in and flushed the stent so hopefully all his blood work will start looking more normal with the infection clearing. His liver enzymes were extremely high - hoping for lower numbers today.

He also received the report of his MRI yesterday.

These are the words he read to me, "The pancreatic head mass is essentially not visible."

I had to let that sink in.

The mass on his pancreas that was visible several months ago is "essentially not visible." Wow. How is that even possible? Ok, yes I know, God...prayers...miracles. But it's hard for me to wrap my head around that phrase...not visible. It's hard for me to make sense of it not being visible.

I guess that means the tumor is either completely gone, or shrunk so much that it can't be seen on the MRI. Either way this is definitely great news!

I'm amazed that several months ago it was 'a mass on the pancreas' 'biopsy confirms cancer' 'hasn't spread to blood vessels or organs' 'possible stage 2' and then about a week after that 'confirmed tumors on the liver ... stage 4 pancreatic cancer' to this 'pancreatic head mass is essentially not visible." I just can't get that phrase out of my head.

The report also read, "no adenopathy present" - of course I took to the internet to find out what that meant. Adenopathy is "enlarged lymph nodes caused by local or generalized infection, inflammatory conditions, malignancy..."

There are still questions about the tumors that were on his liver (and why they didn't do an MRI of his liver to check that at the same time is beyond me.) I would think he would get another MRI or Pet scan to check his liver since there were tumors there as well.

He's still hospitalized; hopefully he'll be going home tomorrow. He still needs to talk to his oncologist...I'm sure there are a lot of questions about what comes next.

He's still having a problem with his foot falling flat when he walks instead of heel-to-toe. He needs an MRI to see if they can find out what is causing that.

But for now we are rejoicing and praising God for the phrase "the pancreatic head mass is essentially not visible."

Thank you for your continued prayers.

And thank You, God, for answered prayers...this was the news we wanted to receive from this MRI. Amen.