Inconclusive

My mom had her gallbladder removed on Monday morning. At this time they also performed a lung biopsy. This consisted of placing a tiny camera in her lung (going down through her throat) to look around and taking multiple biopsies.

My mom is doing pretty good. Her face is pretty soar from the biopsy and her belly is a bit tender from the gallbladder removal.

It has been a pretty stressful week for my mom, and for me. My mind has been wandering all week with the "what ifs".

The doctor called my mom with some results last night. He is a straight to the point doctor, which I respect. He told her that the PET scan results as well as the biopsy were inconclusive that it is cancer. There is more testing that is taking place on the biopsy and he will call my mom Friday night with those results. He also said she will probably have to get a needle biopsy done now. This entails freezing on the surface of your skin and then they inject a needle into you that goes into the lung and retrieves a biopsy. Unfortunately my mom will be awake for this. Why do they need to do this type of biopsy now. From what I understand, and I am NO doctor, is that this tumor is quite big and that all the cells may not be cancerous (if any). Now that they have the PET scan they can pinpoint the specific, maybe target area of the tumor to get the biopsy from.

I am also confused as to the PET scan results being inconclusive. A PET scan detects whether it is cancer, if cancer has spread to other parts of the body (the staging of cancer). So I am hopeful that if the results were inconclusive that means they did not pick up cancer in other parts of the body (if any cancer at all). I wish my mom would have asked her doctor this - but you know how it is when you are on the phone with the doc and are just trying to absorb in what he is telling you.

So right now we are a bit confused and a bit optimistic. I am looking forward to the call from the doctor on Friday night and hopefully more clarification.