On Friday Alex took both a PET scan and two CT scans. The doctor called us in the evening to tell us he had good news and bad news. The good news was that the PET scan showed no metabolic activity that would indicate cancer. The two nodes that were enlarged before on his chest were no longer lighting up. Basically this means Alex has responded to the treatment and he is in remission!!! Yay!!!! We are so happy about that but treatment continues.

The bad news was the CT scans showed a blood clot in his lung (pulmonary embolism). The doctor said Alex had to be admitted to the hospital right away. Alex will need to be on blood thinners to keep the clot from growing and to hopefully have the clot dissolve. This however, can take some time. They will also have to do an ultrasound of his legs and ankles to see if he has any clots there (as that is where they usually start). The thought is that the clot in his lung probably broke off from one in his legs and traveled to the lungs. The good thing once again is that Alex is asymptomatic. He has shown no signs of having a blood clot - no leg pains, no shortness or breath, no chest pains, etc.

Needless to say, we are all bummed to be back in the hospital. Alex hates it in here. He didn't sleep at all. We were admitted around 9:30pm. They didn't start drawing blood to test until 11:30pm, then administered the blood thinner around midnight after the labs on the blood came back. They came in again at 4am to take more blood! The blood thinners will be given every twelve hours so the next dose is at noon.

It looks like he will be on blood thinners for a while. Since the next phase of chemo requires weekly lumbar punctures and the thinners make bleeding much easier, they have to find a balance with the thinners so that he doesn't bleed every time he is poked. That is why they can't put him on an oral blood thinner. He will be on an injectable thinner that Alex will learn to give himself in the stomach.

That's it for now. Will update more later as we get more information.