It took me 4 days to gather the stomach to write this post. On Monday I had my every-2-month CT scan, blood test, and consult with my oncologist. The scan shows a “slight increase in prevascular soft tissue of uncertain significance”. It’s blunted a little by the observation that, “No evidence of metastatic disease is […]
Hoo-RAY! The drain is gone! It was taken out at my appointment with the surgeon yesterday. This was my last consult with him and his lead team member too. I thanked them profusely, and even felt a little nostalgic. Very little nostalgic, but it was there. They did a great job. I’m feeling great, even […]
Remember in the last post how I said the new drain hurt? Well it never stopped hurting, and it was hurting in a completely different way from all the other pains that have come by to visit in the last month, like being branded from the inside out. It buried all the other pains. It […]
I went in for my tube check yesterday. That involves a CT scan, and they found a pocket that was not in communication with my drain. Guess what? I have another drain! This one hurts, which probably is to be expected because they pulled the old one out and put the new one into a […]
I’ve been out of the hospital for just under 2 weeks. Every day I feel better and can see signs of improvement. I’m stronger, my incision hurts less but itches more (a sign of mending apparently), and my drain is now outputting pretty much exactly the same amount of stuff as the saline that I […]
It’s Sunday. I had a nice breakfast and 4 hours later I drank my 10 ounces of magnesium citrate to begin making things more hospitable for the surgeon tomorrow. God that stuff tastes bad. I put in a few hours of work today, finishing one last thing. I still have a couple of much less […]
I had my last consult with my surgeon this Monday. They have pads of 8.5″ x 11″ paper with the stomach and all the blobby parts all around it, intended for surgeons to use explaining the procedure they’re going to perform. So he was drawing all over it since the Whipple procedure takes out a […]
Well, this is it! I met with my surgeon and oncologist on Monday and we have set the date to remove this tumor and a few other parts so that I can return to a relatively normal and healthy life!!! Hot diggity!!!! Since you’ve been keeping up with this blog you already know many of […]
I finally got the definition of “cycle” right. I am now in the 2nd day of my 16th and last cycle of chemo. Today is Saturday and I just got my pump removed. That’s it, no more chemo for now, and maybe forever. This coming Monday I get another blood test and a CT scan, […]
I’m almost at the end of my planned chemo sessions. It seems like the tumor is shrinking. We have a consult with my oncologist and surgeon at the end of this month and they’ll probably set the schedule for the surgery. Knowing all that I still can’t make firm plans for what I can & […]