Category Archives: cancer

prognosis & treatment (1)

28 Saturday Jun 2008

Posted by in cancer, friends, health & happiness, hospitals, life stuff

≈ 20 Comments

It was question and answer time at the hospital yesterday. And I have to say that I was very impressed by how honestly my oncologist Yolanda answered my very direct questions.

The day got off to a bit of a frantic start. Not only was Nog packing up to leave for his month-long job teaching English at a residential camp for kids in Alicante, but Pipocas found out she might have to leave the hospital earlier than planned and, if I was going to start chemo, this would mean that I’d be left on my own. And so on the way to meet Pipocas I stopped by the girls’ apartment – woke them up! – and asked daisyfae if she was still okay about coming to the hospital just in case, as she had previously offered. She was, and so off we went.

And three hours later my whole life changed.

It kinda went like this. I thought I had a choice about either operating now or later, but it turned out that the very specialist surgical team that does the liver op stuff is way booked up (also it’s summer holidays) and so my only option now is to start chemo for a cycle or two (3-6 weeks) and then have surgery. The chemo will start on Monday.

Further questioning led to me asking about my REAL medical condition and prognosis. And I mean, a LOT of extra questioning. Yolanda wasn’t giving anything away but what finally came out was this. . .

  • that I’d had a very aggressive tumour that metastasized very quickly to my liver
  • that after liver surgery there will be a 50% chance of the cancer returning
  • that with chemotherapy this will be reduced to 45%
  • that once I finish chemo I will need to be tested every three months

Pretty scary stuff. Yet somehow I feel more ‘at home’ knowing where I stand. This is much better than going through the chemo and liver surgery and THEN being told the odds. Which aren’t particularly in my favour, are they? I was surprised at how little difference having chemo made.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t feel like giving up and dying. But I also don’t think that I can “fight cancer” by doing anything more than following the prescribed treatment and continuing to enjoy my life. It’s a very serious illness. I’ll either get better or I won’t. Dammit.

test results

26 Thursday Jun 2008

Posted by in cancer, health & happiness, hospitals

≈ 18 Comments

Pilar from The Team (that’s her in the photo link) called me last night just after Nog, nursemyra and I had finished dinner and were taking a walk down by the river.

The PET scan found two malignant lesions in my liver. I’m going to need more surgery.

I guess I’ll find out what my options are when I see the oncologist tomorrow. Pilar says they will probably either operate now and do the chemo later, or do a month or two of chemo and then operate, with more chemo to follow. So I’ll need to find out the pros and cons for both of these options. Since Nog is leaving tomorrow to work in Alicante for a month it might be better to wait and have the surgery done when he gets back, so there is someone here to help out. On the other hand, starting the chemo now and postponing the operation seems like it will just prolong the whole treatment and I sure can’t afford to spend extra time off work. Decisions, decisions . . .

I’m so scared, guys.

pet scan

21 Saturday Jun 2008

Posted by in cancer, health & happiness, hospitals

≈ 8 Comments

PET: positron emission tomography

What an ordeal! A much more complicated process than with the CT scan, but at least I didn’t have to drink that awful barium sulphate crap. My appointment was at 9.45 – I thought it would be nice to walk through the park that time of day so Nog & I left early to make the 45-minute trek to the hospital. I wasn’t allowed to have any brekky, which didn’t bother me, but I was totally jonesing for a coffee.

As soon as I got to the nuclear medicine department they brought me into the injection room (gaaaa!) and stuck an IV thingy in my hand vein (ouch!) . The guy who did it was actually quite good and only had to do it twice. Then he gave me a serious tranquiliser and muscle relaxant, took a blood sample, hooked up a bottle of saline solution and injected me with some FDG (radioactive isotope). After this he said he had to leave the room as I would be emitting radiation (eep!) and that I was to sit there in my comfy reclining chair for an hour and let the drugs totally relax me.

Then I got put through the PET machine, which is similar to the CT one but it takes longer (about half an hour compared to ten minutes). After that they sent me away to have something to eat and said I’d have to come back an hour and a half later to be put through the machine again. But the second time was faster – about ten minutes.

The Team said they were going to let me know the results by Tuesday, so then I should know whether I’ll be starting chemo on Friday or if I’ll have to have more surgery first … time for some of that medicinal chilled white wine I reckon.

still adrift …

19 Thursday Jun 2008

Posted by in cancer, friends, health & happiness, home, hospitals, life stuff

≈ 13 Comments

Yesterday I was supposed to start chemo …

Since my operation in May I have been pretty much been living in limbo. It wasn’t so apparent during the first couple of weeks that I was recovering from surgery, but as soon as started feeling better I also started realising that this was just the first step. I still had to find out if the tumour that had been removed (along with a metre of my colon) was malignant and, if so, whether the cancer had spread.

Two weeks ago I was told the tumour was indeed malignant and a week later I had a CT scan to see if I was ‘clean’ or not. And yesterday I found out that I’m not. Or maybe I’m not. The CT scan showed a small lesion in my liver that may or may not be cancerous. [editor’s note: gaaaaaaa!!!]

I was told I would need a PET scan and if the lesion turned out to be malignant I would then require more surgery, followed by chemo. But in the meantime I was still scheduled to start chemo this Friday (I’d put it off for a couple of days so I could meet nursemyra at the airport today without feeling ill). But it still didn’t make sense to start chemo and then stop it for surgery – if it came to that – and then start all over again a few weeks later.

And so I went down to the nuclear medicine department to see about getting a PET scan. Happily I know some people there so it turned out that I can have a PET scan this Saturday and get the results back by Monday (yay!). And when I told my oncologist this she immediately agreed about putting off the chemo till next week, until we find out if I’m going to need more surgery or not.

So if all goes well and I only need the preventative chemo (fingers crossed!) then that will start on the day after daisyfae arrives, which would also be better timing.

Meanwhile, I’m back in limbo.