12 chemo treatments
Major surgery
8 chemo treatments
Major surgery
...
4/22/15 - I thought I was done after that. Not so much... I'm actually sitting in the waiting room for radiation oncology right now waiting for my simulation. They do a simulation to map out your anatomy before your first treatment. It's funny that I used to get anxious about all the CT scans I was getting. I've had about a dozen now... But that's nothing compared to the dose of radiation I'm going to get from each of these treatment that's coming. Five days a week for four weeks, I'll be getting blasted by a linear accelerator. Each exposure from that will be greater than all of those CTs combined!
Radiation therapy is for that spot low on my left side that was found to be cancerous in its biopsy. I've been told that the side effects should be minimal. Maybe nothing... Either way, it's supposed to be the last step in the journey for a while.
4/30/15 - I've had two treatments now. They go really quick. I met with my oncologist yesterday, and he confirmed that everything looks really good. He says current treatment not withstanding, I'm done! We transition to the 3 month checkup phase. That means REMISSION. Yesterday was a pretty good day...
I met with the radiation oncology doc today, and we talked about my visit yesterday. He feels the same way... Waaaay back in the beginning of all this, I mentioned what Dr. Campbell said about having a 30 or 40 year lifespan regardless of what we do to the cancer. My doc today said almost the exact same thing without me prompting him, or even mentioning what Dr. Campbell said. I like it when they're on the same page.
He also said I'll probably only need 16 treatments instead of 20! I still get the same amount of exposure, but larger doses in fewer visits. I would just as soon get this over with. By the way, I get 220 centigrays of exposure to that specific spot on my hip per visit. If you're curious what that means, I'm going to make you look it up yourself! It's your homework assignment...
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Catching up after 2nd surgery.
Well that last post was a bit cryptic. That's the process of strong pain meds and other drugs while sitting around in the hospital with an hour to kill. Yes, an hour...
Anyway, it's time to catch up. Surgery was mostly successful, the colon recection went well, however, they did not perform liver procedure. They decided it was just too risky to mess with for what they thought was dead tissue anyway. Here's the rub, when they did the biopsy on my colon and that little spot on my pelvis, both were still hot. Regardless, we're playing the waiting game with that one.
As far as that spot on my pelvis, it's assumed to have spread there during the first surgery back in September. Possibly a drop of contaminated blood, or something similar. Either way, they removed it, and I go in to talk about some radiation therapy in a little over a week from now. It's mostly a "let's be sure we got it all" thing than anything else.
Bottom line, I'm not as done as I would like to be. It was pretty disappointing to hear that the cancer was still active. A couple of docs have considered more chemo, until I reminded them that I've already had 20 rounds!
I'm recovering pretty well from the operation, the incision is already completely closed (the first surgery took over a month to close up), but I'm still dealing with the side effects from losing a large portion of your colon. You can use your own imagination to figure that out.... I also have quite a fatigue issue to deal with. I get tired of I'm on my feet for more than 2 hours or so. I'll push through it and get my stamina back eventually.
Anyway, it's time to catch up. Surgery was mostly successful, the colon recection went well, however, they did not perform liver procedure. They decided it was just too risky to mess with for what they thought was dead tissue anyway. Here's the rub, when they did the biopsy on my colon and that little spot on my pelvis, both were still hot. Regardless, we're playing the waiting game with that one.
As far as that spot on my pelvis, it's assumed to have spread there during the first surgery back in September. Possibly a drop of contaminated blood, or something similar. Either way, they removed it, and I go in to talk about some radiation therapy in a little over a week from now. It's mostly a "let's be sure we got it all" thing than anything else.
Bottom line, I'm not as done as I would like to be. It was pretty disappointing to hear that the cancer was still active. A couple of docs have considered more chemo, until I reminded them that I've already had 20 rounds!
I'm recovering pretty well from the operation, the incision is already completely closed (the first surgery took over a month to close up), but I'm still dealing with the side effects from losing a large portion of your colon. You can use your own imagination to figure that out.... I also have quite a fatigue issue to deal with. I get tired of I'm on my feet for more than 2 hours or so. I'll push through it and get my stamina back eventually.
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
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