Hope everyone had a merry Christmas! I was feeling really good, other than dreading the next day of chemo. My favorite gift was a new Vera Bradley bag to take to chemo. I had a bag I bought and the zipper already broke so that was a bummer.
Treatment 5 was a little different this time. They insisted on giving me IV benadryl to prevent my allergic reaction I had last time so that made me loopy and sleepy. I think I'm still feeling the effects of it today sleepy wise.
The meeting with the oncologist was interesting. He said that he still wants to see the larger nodule in my left lung come out regardless of it changing size or not throughout the rest of my treatments. So after all my treatments are done it looks like I will have another surgery. I am just kind of glad to have some kind of definitive answer on that even though I don't like it. He is being cautious about it so I guess that is good. There is no good way to biopsy it because of its location deep into the lung. So this will be the best way to find out what it is. The surgery would be at RI hospital, not the same hospital that I had my colon surgery at so I am kinda bummed about that, I liked it there. It will be a thoracoscopic surgery so there will be small incisions and my stay should be similar to how long I was in the hospital for my colon surgery. So I guess it's good I won't have anymore big incisions I can just add to my plethora of holes I have all over my body, can't wait for bathing suit season :( I seriously already feel like I look like I had shards of glass go flying at me and leave cuts all over my torso.
The thing that still remains and could still remain unknown for a while is whether or not I am stage III C or stage IV. If they take out that nodule and pathology report comes back saying it's not cancer, then what about the 3 smaller spots on the right? We will just watch those through scans for months to a year after to see if they change. This is what makes it hard because if it hasn't traveled to my lungs they will probably want me to do radiation on my colon area. This is because if it hasn't spread to my lungs they want to try to decrease my chances of recurrence in my colon. I am not thrilled about the idea of radiation for many reasons, it only increases my chance of it not recurring in my colon by 5%, not a lot. And the long term and immediate side effects are very long and scary. I will have an appointment with a radiologist to discuss this at some point. It would be 5.5 weeks of going M-F to be zapped, so a total of 28 times. Yikes!
You've been through so much Leah, and you are so brave and such an inspiration. To have all this uncertainty must be tough, but I hope this changes things for the better in the long run.
ReplyDeleteLove!
Kim
Craziness!
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind that you can always decline their recommendation for radiation. If you were their sister/daughter/mother, they might not recommend it for only decreasing your risk of recurrence by an additional 5%, as the chemo and surgery are already reducing that risk significantly. But they have to suggest what the literature says...
You could also choose to decline their recommendation to have the larger mass removed from your lung, if you'd prefer to keep an eye on it instead. Remember that you're not doing this to make them feel better; it's about you feeling and being better!
They are advisers, not decision makers, in your treatment.
I am sorry you are playing the waiting game. That must be so frustrating.
ReplyDeleteScars are just the road map of your life, for better or worse. You are going to have more than your fair share, but let them remind you of your strength as you get through this ordeal!