{"id":215,"date":"2006-12-29T22:18:14","date_gmt":"2006-12-30T03:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/the-cancer-battle\/index\/next-curve-ball\/"},"modified":"2009-03-05T16:49:16","modified_gmt":"2009-03-05T21:49:16","slug":"next-curve-ball","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/big-stories\/the-cancer-battle\/next-curve-ball\/","title":{"rendered":"Next Curve Ball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>December 29<\/p>\n<p>Andrea and I got up at 5am to meet with Dr. Levine at Winston-Salem Medical Center today.  The first order of business was a fresh CT scan &#8211; man, my insides have been gawked at a lot lately.  Then a visit from another doctor (an intern?).  Then finally a visit from the man himself, Dr. Levine.  He&#8217;s wonderfully upbeat and instantly sets you at ease, even given the heaviness of the subject matter.  Or maybe it was the good news!  He is convinced I have appendiceal cancer, which has a better survival rate than colon cancer.  It is more rare &#8211; he says the average oncologist will see maybe one a year &#8211; but he sees three or four a day, so I feel like I&#8217;m finally in the right hands.  He looked at the CT scan and says it looks like there is cancer on my pelvis, spleen and diaphragm.  But he thinks it is slow-growing and there is no need to rush into surgery.  He has scheduled me to return after my chemo (which he cut in half to 6 sessions &#8211; YES! &#8211; it apparently isn&#8217;t very effective at eradicating this type of cancer).  He wrote &#8220;4 1\/2 months&#8221; on the schedule, we asked him to cut it down, so he made it &#8220;4 months&#8221;, then when we checked out we pushed harder and moved it to April.<\/p>\n<p>Now that I&#8217;m getting more convinced it actually IS appendiceal cancer, there are a couple good sites with information that really resonates &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/appendix-cancer.com\/\">(1)<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pmpawareness.org\/\">(2)<\/a> &#8211; it&#8217;s as if I&#8217;d already read them &#8211; so it feels good to be more on track.  Basically: fight the growth of &#8220;belly-jelly&#8221; with at least 45 minutes of exercise a day &#8211; train like you&#8217;re going to run a marathon.  Then, when you&#8217;re in great shape, get that mother of all surgeries!!  Here we go!!<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"http:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/big-stories\/the-cancer-battle\/index\/bad-week-not-so-bad\/\">Previous<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/big-stories\/the-cancer-battle\/\">Home<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/big-stories\/the-cancer-battle\/index\/a-case-of-ketchup\/\">Next<\/a><br \/>\n<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>December 29 Andrea and I got up at 5am to meet with Dr. Levine at Winston-Salem Medical Center today. The first order of business was a fresh CT scan &#8211; man, my insides have been gawked at a lot lately. Then a visit from another doctor (an intern?). Then finally a visit from the man &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/big-stories\/the-cancer-battle\/next-curve-ball\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Next Curve Ball<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":194,"menu_order":16,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-215","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9M0Zg-3t","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":377,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/big-stories\/the-cancer-battle\/ct-scan-showed-tumor-growth\/","url_meta":{"origin":215,"position":0},"title":"CT scan showed tumor growth","author":"m","date":"March 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I got my semi-annual CT scan on Friday, and Dr. Levine reported that a mucinous layer had expanded from 5mm in the previous scan to 9mm. On the previous scan, he had said I was clean, so it sounds like you have to see some change to really tell what\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Daily Life&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Daily Life","link":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/category\/daily-life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":234,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/big-stories\/the-cancer-battle\/holding-pattern\/","url_meta":{"origin":215,"position":1},"title":"Holding Pattern","author":"m","date":"February 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"February 19, 2007 We have the trip to Florida coming up next weekend, for Andrea's dad David Behrns' memorial service. Andrea and Betty have put together a wonderful collection of photos for the service. My dad will be officiating. Dan and I got the chance to visit with him in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Daily Life&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Daily Life","link":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/category\/daily-life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":253,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/big-stories\/the-cancer-battle\/done-with-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":215,"position":2},"title":"Done With It!","author":"m","date":"August 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"June, July, August... :P Sorry i haven't written in so long. I guess I just got burned out on repeatedly writing what felt like a lot of whining. I'm in a lot better shape now, so no worries! Quick recap: The only remaining significant problem is pain and bloating after\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Daily Life&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Daily Life","link":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/category\/daily-life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":204,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/big-stories\/the-cancer-battle\/getting-a-clearer-picture\/","url_meta":{"origin":215,"position":3},"title":"Getting A Clearer Picture","author":"m","date":"November 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"November 14, 2006 I couldn't wait any longer, and sent an email directly to Dr. Sugarbaker asking him to allow me to get cytoreductive surgery (CRS). I hope I didn't jump the gun, since I have more information now... It looks like if I have colon cancer (which is more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Daily Life&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Daily Life","link":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/category\/daily-life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2537,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/big-stories\/the-cancer-battle\/lung-drama-tension-release\/","url_meta":{"origin":215,"position":4},"title":"Lung Drama&#8230; tension, release!","author":"m","date":"July 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Cara took me to Winston-Salem to follow up on the new lung spot that showed up six weeks ago. The CT scan showed NOTHING - apparently the flu bug I had at the prior scan was the cause of the large spot at the bottom of my right lung... and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bitpost.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_20180608_110404-e1533489349492-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":202,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/big-stories\/the-cancer-battle\/relapse-rest-and-chow-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":215,"position":5},"title":"Relapse, Rest &#8211; and CHOW DOWN!","author":"m","date":"November 10, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Yikes, it's been a while since I've added any updates, let me explain - \"no, too much, lemme sum up\"... October 18-21, 2006 I was at home for 3 days following the first surgery, feeling pretty good and starting to enjoy all the food everyone was bringing over. But I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Daily Life&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Daily Life","link":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/category\/daily-life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":357,"href":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/215\/revisions\/357"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}