HIPEC

So I met with the dr who performs the hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) or chemo bath.  It felt more like a 2nd opinion, which was good.  He is a surgical oncologist, although, his lab coat looked more like a chef uniform and it had some stains so I was trying to ignore the image of him cooking while we discussed my future treatments.  (sort of kidding!)

I haven't made a decision yet but I am leaning toward doing the HIPEC.  I have no interest in doing the IV chemo FULFIRI for 6 months.  I don't believe that the first 6 months of FULFOX chemo didn't work.  I believe that the cancer on my ovary was there when they took out my colon tumor.  It hid out during chemo and the cyst grew in response to the cancer.  This showed up on the scan and lead to the removal.  I think that the cancer cells got to the ovary through close proximity and not through the blood, thus proving that the chemo did work.  If the Dr was expecting a tiny nodule on my lung to only shrink during chemo, then clearly the cancer on the ovary was big enough not to be eliminated with the chemo and then grew after.  The next part I am not sure of.  The point of doing the HIPEC would be to avoid any cancer growing on my peritoneum, which is hard to detect and treat.  I am not sure that there are no other loose cells out there in my abdomen that the IV chemo didn't kill.  This is the only reason I would do the HIPEC. 

The surgery would be in about a month.  The recovery doesn't seem too bad but just like the oophorectomy, he plans to do it laparascopically unless there is too much scar tissue and he needs to make a bigger incision which leads to longer recovery.  I would have an NG tube for a few days which totally freaks me out.  I feel like opting to do the HIPEC is doing something instead of nothing which I feel comfortable with at this point.

On another note, after my last post I was flooded with emails, comments, texts and phone calls and I feel so loved.  Thank you to everyone who has continued to support me as this journey seems to just get harder and more difficult to navigate and survive, but I am doing it and it is because of all of you supporting me and helping me through this.