Summary of My Situation

I have heard through the grapevine that there are many people now visiting this site who were not on the original email list. I really, really appreciate everyone’s support and love through this ordeal – I absolutely could not make this journey without all of you!! In an effort to get everyone on the same page with regards to what has happened so far, I thought I would re-publish some of the highlights from earlier emails, so here goes:

- Because of an ultrasound that I had last week, we know that the tumor has invaded the lining & muscle. The doctors were also able to “see” two lymph nodes. Normally, they cannot see lymph nodes in an ultrasound, so when they CAN see them, they have to assume that they are infected and enlarged. Clearly not the news we wanted to hear. These two factors classified my cancer as T3, N1 or stage 3.
- We also had a CT scan done last week (a highly sophisticated x-ray that allows the doctors to look inside all the parts of the body in 3D). This came back showing a small lesion on my liver. At first, the doctors were not concerned (benign lesions are not uncommon), but after the ultrasound results came back they became concerned. A cancerous lesion in the liver would indicate that the cells from the main tumor had broken away, gotten into the blood stream and are now circulating through my body.
- Because of this, I was sent in for a PET scan (another type of x-ray that shows “hot spots” of cancer in the body). The results of this came back with only the main tumor “lighting up”. However, there is a margin of error with PET scans, particularly when the lesion is small like my liver one (1.4cm for all you doctors out there), so there is no way to know for sure.
- Because of this uncertainty, the doctors in Marin are recommending that I be treated as stage 4, which would entail more intense chemotherapy prior to doing radiation and surgery. This would also mean that I would likely have surgery on my liver to remove the questionable section at the same time that they go in to remove the main tumor. It’s all so overwhelming, but if I can just get myself into the hands of UCSF doctors, at least I will feel confident that I am in good hands.
- Toward that end, we have an appointment this Tuesday with a Medical Oncologist and a Surgeon at UCSF. Both have been highly recommended to us from multiple sources and so we are quite anxious to hear what they have to say. In the meantime, my neighbor (the liver specialist) is going to view my CT scan results and see if he can figure out what exactly is going on in my liver. I pray, pray, pray that he does not think that it’s cancer!!
- For those of you who are blessed enough to not have any experience with cancer, you'll hear me reference three main doctors as we go through this. The main doctor (the "ship captain") is the medical oncologist. This is the doctor who determines the chemotherapy protocol and is first in line in terms of monitoring progress and addressing side effects, etc. The second doctor who I will deal with is a radiation oncologist, who is in charge of administering the "Hiroshima blasts" to my abdomen. From what we can tell, this is a highly technical role that relies heavily on computer programming. Lastly, I will be working with a surgeon who will be responsible for taking out the tumor and lymph nodes once radiation is done. Hopefully, I won't need a liver surgeon, but in the event the spot on my liver does not get resolved, I'll have one of these doctors as well. As the doctor last week pointed out, cancer is a "team sport".
- Lastly, thanks to my amazing cousin Jeremy and his wife Shannon (who are both doctors and have been my personal advisors through all this) we have now officially dubbed the tumor "The Bitch" and we are kicking off "The Bitch Must Go" 2007 campaign. My friend Gale is helping me to get t-shirts made with the campaign name so that I can wear mine to chemo sessions. Let her know if you would also like a campaign t-shirt: galealove@yahoo.com. And when she and I run the Nike marathon next year (it was our goal this year, but obviously needs to be postponed) we will print up new t-shirts that say "The Bitch is Gone!"

That’s about all we know for now. Stay tuned for more updates on Tuesday! And please keep the prayers and emails coming. Even if I don’t answer you, please know that I absolutely treasure getting your words of support and love.