Go to St. Mark's hospital for the chest CT scan and breast MRI. No eating or drinking after midnight for the CT scan, but luckily I don't have to drink the barium drink again. For the MRI I had to wear clothes with no metal on them anywhere - no zippers, snaps, buttons, jewelry, etc. The CT scan was pretty easy and straight forward and quick. They put in an IV and then left it in so they could use the same one for the MRI. The tech put some tape over it so it would't come out and later I had some nice cuts in my arm from the tape cutting into my skin... The breast MRI was quite the experience. I had to lay down on the table face down and I wasn't allowed to move for the duration of the scan - about 25 minutes. They put earplugs in my ears and then ear muffs over that to protect my ears from the noises during the MRI. It was still pretty loud even with all of that protection. They don't let you listen to music and they don't talk to you at all during the procedure because they have found that it causes people to move more or get anxious if the techs haven't talked to them in a while. My biggest fear during the scan was that my abdomen or leg would start hurting during it and that I wouldn't be able to stand the pain during the procedure. Luckily I did fine during it and only got a little panicky at one point when I kept thinking about all of the implications of what I was currently enduring. The frustrating part about the MRI is that there is no way to tell how much time has gone by. I was just laying there hoping that we were getting close to finishing, but no way to tell at all!

My parents have been great with being there to help out with the kids during all of this. M&M had the day off of school and when we got home from the hospital the kids and my mom had finished putting up the rest of the Halloween decorations.

Later that afternoon we got a call from my oncologist saying that she had the results for the scans that day as well as the lab work from Wednesday. Finally she had some good news for me! The chest CT scan and breat MRI both looked just fine and my kidney and liver function tests all came back normal except for one for the liver - which can be caused by other factors such as breastfeeding. She also had been in contact with some cancer treatment groups in the area and found that I may qualify for a clinical trial at Huntsman Cancer Institute and she strongly recommended that I talk with the doctor in charge of the study to see if we would be interested in it. She also wanted to schedule a liver biopsy for me ASAP so we can get a definitive diagnosis on my condition before we move forward on a course of treatment. The oncologist sounded much more optimistic with the good test results and it definitely helped to improve my spirits.

I got a call not too much later letting me know what time to show up for my liver biopsy on Monday. They also gave me instructions for the procedure - stop taking any kind of ibuprofen or aspirin (Tylenol is okay), no eating or drinking after midnight Sunday night. I needed to show up at the hospital at 9:45 in the morning and to plan on being there most of the day - I will have to stay for observations for about 4 hours after the procedure to make sure there is no internal bleeding.

I also got a call from the Huntsman Cancer Institute asking us to come in Tuesday morning to meet with the Cancer team in charge of the clinical trial. I asked if there was any way we could meet on Wednesday instead, but with their schedules that was the only time that week they could get me in. DH had a research conference for work scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday of that week and he was doing a presentation during it. He was originally scheduled to present on Wednesday but when my surgery was scheduled for that day he contacted the organizer and asked if he could be moved to Tuesday instead... DH was out picking up the kids from their piano lessons so I called him as soon as I got off the phone with Huntsman. As soon as he got home, he checked the schedule for the conference and it looked like they still had him scheduled for Wednesday.