November 10, 2006
I’m feeling great physically now. THANK YOU so much to all the people that are getting me fattened up, what fun it has been!! We’ve added 5 or 6 recipes to our “regular favorites”, yummy. I’ve gone up from a low of 160, trying to work up to 170. Gotta get some serious exercise going!
At the same time, I’m dealing with a full plate of mental challenges (there’s a joke in there somewhere… SOMEwhere…). I am trying to determine what type of cancer I have. Weird eh? You’d think that would be the first order of business. Two different oncologists with different conclusions so far, but one is still awaiting official pathology results. The main question is whether the adinocarcinoma is of appendiceal or colonic origin. The appendiceal version is more rare, but world-reknowned Dr. Sugarbaker is doing surgery for it that will improve chances – better than colon cancer changes, anyway, which aren’t great. Still more questions than answers.
Basically I will have (at best) two options: “standard” systemic chemotherapy, most likely FOLFOX + Avastin; or go for the “mother of all surgeries” (MOAS), Cytoreductive Surgery Combined With Perioperative Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy. They basically cut you wide open and scoop out every bit of disease they can find, whether in the peritoneum or expanded into other organs, then wash you with hot chemotherapy right into the incision. It’s a major surgery, somtimes requiring three surgeons, taking a dozen hours or more, and risky. But studies show that it improves your odds.
Unfortunately, while I was drowning under the weight of all the studies I was reading, I was ignorant of the term “carcinomatosis”. This term was typically in the title of most of the papers I was reading. Finally I looked the word up (doh!) here. Turns out it means you’ve got it really bad – cancer has reached “a number of different sites in a number of different organs”. When dealing with carcinomatosis, most of the patients in the studies I was reading had very very poor rates of survival. Wish I’d looked that word up FIRST, because I should not be in that category and it would have saved me some rather difficult moments of thinking my prospects were EXTREMELY dim. I’m not saying they are great, but REMEMBER KIDS, don’t jump to conclusions! :>
On that same note, Andrea and I have devised a strategy that I would heartily recommend be applied to Life In General (TM). Step 1 is to become informed about your situation, down to statistical analysis from the “experts”. Step 2: DEFY them! Even if there is a 10% chance of success, immediately put yourself in that bucket, because it is the only acceptable outcome. Considering all the “positive prognostic indicators” going for me (relative youth, lack of extended carcinomatosis, no lymph node involvement, good differentiation (i think?), and no evidence of liver metastasis – see how smart I’m getting? I’ll be speaking Latin soon…), it even makes sense. So there. :>
I’ll update this as soon as I hear from Dr. Morse at Duke regarding the pathology results and the chances of getting the MOAS.
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