Further Next Steps

The other "next step" that I forgot to mention in my last blog entry is that, now that I am basically done with chemo, I get to move into "monitoring mode." This means that I go back to see Dr Gullion (chemo oncologist) and Dr Poen (radiation oncologist) in one month for my first post-treatment check-up. At that point, they will check my blood counts to make sure that everything is moving back toward normal and they will lay out a rough monitoring schedule going forward.

As Dr Gullion explained to us today, there are basically four possible scenarios of what can happen now:

1) The cancer could be completely gone and will never come back again. As far as I am concerned, this is really the only option, but for the sake of thoroughness, I'll share the other scenarios as well...

2) The cancer might come back in the same place. He explained that this is virtually impossible for me, though, since the tumor was basically gone by the time that I had surgery and also because Dr Garcia-Aguilar (my surgeon) removed all of the cancerous tissue plus much of the surrounding tissue during surgery. So Dr Gullion admitted that the chance of this scenario happening to me is "essentially non-existent." I love that!

3) Additional polyps might appear in other parts of my colon. He explained that it takes about 18 months for a polyp to appear and another 18 months for it to become cancerous. Hence the need for yearly colonoscopy appointments so that we can "nip these in the bud," so to speak, before they turn monsterous.

4) Future scans sometimes reveal metastatic cancer spots on the liver or elsewhere. For me, this would mean that somehow some of the cancer cells miraculously survived everything that we have thrown at them these past 9 months and migrated into the blood stream. This would obviously not be good and so, again, it's not an option, as far as I am concerned.

According to Dr Gullion, the most important years will be the next five. In general, if one of the last three scenarios is going to happen, it generally happens within five years for colon cancer patients (the same is not true for all cancers.) If I can make it to Thanksgiving 2012 without any reoccurance then my chances of the cancer coming back approach 0%. I love the fact that Thanksgiving will forever anchor the anniversary of my completion of cancer treatment since it's such an appropriate occasion for celebrating life.