The Scoop on the Down Low

Today we saw Dr. Chang, the medical oncologist. We know a little more than we did before, but not much. The CaT scan last week doesn't indicate any metastatic indicators, but we are waiting on a comparison between the CaT scan last week at St. Vincent's with the CaT scan in December at Meridian Park. Dr. Chang is still concerned about some visible "hot spot" nodes in the Meridian Park CaT scan. He wants to see what has happened with these when they compare the two.

Here are some possible scenarios:

1) If the nodes are smaller or gone: We will assume these nodes also may be cancer and that they responded to the low dosage of Chemo I was on during radiation. We will do surgery on the local tumor in the rectum and remove it. Then will do aggressive Chemo treatment to make certain all possible peripheral cancer is taken care of.

2) If the nodes are the same (this sounds like the best): They may or may not be cancer, but hoping not. Still, will do surgery and Chemo, same as above just to be sure.

3) If the nodes are larger: We will assume they are cancerous. We will re-evaluate the wisdom of having surgery at this point because if there are other growing tumors we would need to weigh the risk of having surgery with the risk of leaving the local tumor there for a while and seeing how it responds to heavier dosage of Chemo along with the other tumors. In other words, if we were certain there were other growing cancers, we would not necessarily do surgery because once the genie is out of the bottle and growing, it may not make sense to go through the pain of surgery at this time.

It sounded like because the second CaT scan didn't indicate metastatic evidence, Dr. Chang was leaning toward option #1 or #2 above. Long term, these are better because they give a chance at cure rather than just treatment.

I have to reschedule the appointment with the surgeon, hopefully for later this week or next week. We want to have the CaT scan comparison in his hands so he can also help us make judgment.

At this point, it seems like a surgery would be possibly 4-6 weeks from now...so around mid-May (happy birthday to me :) We are still very uncertain exactly how involved the surgery will be and how long it will knock me down for.

I'm feeling pretty well now and have lost a little weight, so that's good. Trying to be more active and get stronger in the next 4-6 weeks will be important!

The side effects from radiation are about 90% healed I'd say, but the skin feels different from the old...it's smoother and, well, just different. Hopefully it continues to heal and get back to normal.

That's all for now...see ya!

Continued Shrinkage

Just got back from the radiation oncologist.

After examination, he said that the tumor has shrunken quite a bit and has receded up, away from the end of the canal, both of which are things we have been praying will happen...

This is very welcome news!

I have a CaT scan tomorrow morning at 6:45 which will tell us more when I visit the medical oncologist next Tuesday...

Appointments up the Wazzoo

So I have 4 doctor appointments in the next 7 days. Hopefully by the end of this we will have a better idea what the next step in the process will be.

Today, March 25, 10:00, Dr. Hanson...radiation oncologist...follow-up
Thurs, March 26, 6:45am, St. Vincent's...doing CaT scan to see if the tumor shrunk and if there are any other hot spots...
Tues, March 31, 3:15pm, Dr. Chang...medical oncologist...discuss and interpret CaT scan...follow up
TBD, TBD, Dr. Patrick Lee, colo-rectal surgeon...to discuss possible surgery

Will post more as I know more.

The Beavers play Stanford in hoops for the fourth time this year tonight...hoping for another exciting win!!

Feelin' Groovy

This week I have felt pretty well. I have decided to give-it-a-go and go into the office to work on Monday and see what that feels like. I suppose the only real difference there is being 150' from the bathroom rather than 15', but we shall see.

We had the first realtor show our house to a client on Saturday. That was exciting, and we are praying for an offer, but trying not to be over-anxious.

I have several Doctor appointments this week as well as a CaT scan, but I need to call on Monday to find out the specific times and days because in all the clean up around our house I have misplaced the appointment cards.

Thanks ya'll for you continued support and prayers!

It's Pure Madness

No, I'm not talking about March Madness, although that wondrous event is about to start.

I'm talking about so many people I know right now going through transitions, changes, difficult times, and saying the end of '08 wasn't one to remember.

We're nearing the end of the first 1/4 of '09 and it seems like a better year so far!!

I'm healing nicely...at least on the outside. I can't...um...really see on the inside...(thankfully I'm not that flexible). I'm feeling more energetic and more "normal" than I have in the last couple months. There's still some skin flaking, but there's not really any pain anymore (itching sometimes).

Visits to the little room becoming less urgent and less frequent...almost normal! Woo Hoo!

Will post again when there's more news...love ya'll

When Life Gives Lemons, Buy a Beetle

Life is short and there's nothing like a bit of the "butt cancer" to make ya realize that. Jeanah and I were talking about ways we can make sure we can live life to the fullest and make sure we do everything we want to do on this side of eternity.

I think Jeanah came up with a great idea...make sure we drive a "fun" car. We decided to buy a VW New Beetle this weekend and will be selling the "mom rocket" (Ford Windstar). We got the Diesel TDI that gets 49+ MPG because Jeanah is practical too.

The Bug is definitely a fun car (it's a manual tranny) to drive and just to look at. We had to go to Redmond, WA to get the right color (Batik Blue).

As for me...we found out that the gas stations in downtown Seattle don't have public restrooms...don't worry, we chose not to give them our fuel business either, but it was touch-n-go there for a while! Thank goodness all McDonald's do have public restrooms still.

I was a bit weary driving up Friday and back Saturday, but after sleeping in on Sunday, I'm feeling OK.

My Shoes Smell Like Gym Socks

Today I worked from 4:30 to 10:30, not the normal 4:30-1:00 because the realtors had to kick us out to do a realtors walk-through. They had 16 local realtors come through...they said that was about 1/2 of the realtors in Canby...a good turn out...

All the realtors gave good reviews and liked the house. The only negative was that one closet smells funny. Come to find out. a pair of my particularly well worn shoes is the culprit...thankfully we have a burn circle in our back yard.

Well, we hope some of those realtors have clients!! In case you know somebody interested in a house in Canby, or you just want to see our house...here's the link: Canby House

Now that the house is ready to go, Jeanah has started looking more thoroughly for a job in the Tigard area. She is the best receptionist in the world, so if you know of somebody looking for a receptionist or administrative assistant type, give her a yodel!

Now, as for my health...still struggling with having to visit the little room...which is a bit frustrating, but hoping this subsides soon! No new "sunburn" to report, still trying to take care of the old. Am trying to get rest and eat right, etc., which are two huge parts to the healing process. Haven't shaved in days...probably need to (?TMI?)

A couple OSU hoops wins in the SoCal area this weekend would do well for my spirits as well...

Work Days part Deux

We had a bunch more wonderful people out in the last 2 days to help out around our house. Got a bunch of painting done inside and out and the place really looks sharp. That was great because although Thursday and Friday I felt pretty well, Saturday and today I felt/feel pretty lousy. The "sunburn" continues even though I'm not currently getting radiation. Hoping that subsides soon... Also, still struggling with "going" fairly often and that can really sap you after a while!

Jeanah has done a phenomenal job getting our house ready for Open House at 1:00 today. We are going over to my parents' house this afternoon and handing our house over to the realtors. Go, Sell, Sell, Sell!!!

An interesting experience we had this week was when we wanted Chinese food Thursday night, but we knew our standby Chinese restaurant in Canby (Hoi Tin) has recently closed down (we assume due to the poor economy). There are several other Chinese restaurants in town... There is one called "Wally's Chinese" which quite honestly looks like (inside and out) nobody has done maintenance on the building in 20 years and I've always been afraid to try it. Jeanah looked it up online and it has very good reviews. We braved the building and went. It is now our new standby. In fact, we probably enjoyed it better than Hoi Tin. Just goes to show you that outward appearances aren't everything they're cracked up to be!