Testing, testing. 1-2-3

All tests are over (for now). Sure, I'll still have blood drawn a few million times per week, but the big tests, the scans and probes with the fancy equipment of the multisyllabic nomenclature (which are then distilled to acronyms), are over for now. Let's see, I've had a:

• Colonoscopy
• Computerized tomography (CT) Scan
• Positron emission tomography (PET) Scan, and
  
• Endoscopic Ultrasound (ESUS, I asked them not to tell me the sex of the tumor, I want it to be a surprise).

All of this tells the oncologists that my tumor is in Stage III. It has breached the intestinal wall and has invaded the local lymph nodes. This, and the location of the thing, fixes the regimen: pre-operative chemo/radiation therapy, surgery, then more chemo.

I had a pet scan. I named him "Spot." Ha ha ha.