Next Steps

Now that Phase I of The Bitch Must Go campaign is over, many people have asked me "What happens next?"

Here is what we know so far:

May 25 -- I have another CT/PET scan done at UCSF. This will be a much more sophisticated test than I had done previously and will actually combine the CT and PET technology into one. This will hopefully allow the liver specialist (Dr Warren) to better understand what the spot is on my liver. I keep telling everyone that it's just a "freckle" (I have lots of them all over my body and I like them because I think they make me look more youthful!) but they still want to double-check!!

June 8th -- My tentative date for surgery. I will have abdominal surgery so that they can take out the main colon tumor and any suspicious pelvic lymph nodes and/or pelvic tissue. If Dr Warren still has any questions about the spot on my liver, he will also do an intra-operative ultrasound of my liver during surgery to get a closer look.

About 6 weeks post surgery (so end of July) -- I begin chemo again (but only chemo this time...no more radiation). The protocol and timing for this chemo is still TBD until the doctors better understand whether there is liver involvement and whether I need additional liver surgery. The impression that we've been given is that this phase of chemo will last about 4-6 months and I'll go in once every other week for an afternoon of treatment, rather than having the continuous pump again.

So that what we know right now... It's all so daunting for me to think about so for now I am just trying to keep myself busy and distracted with eating well, starting to exercise again, and getting lots of rest since these are the only things that I can really control.