Ok To Start Chemo

I saw my Surgeon on Thursday and I have the all clear to start Chemo.

I have to meet with a new group of Oncologists at the Local Hospital  in Glens Falls  that has a Cancer Center then I won't have to travel 90mins away... that was a relief. I have an appt. next Friday at 2pm to get the ball rolling.

I won't have to deal with being tortured with needles .. they are going to install a port under my collarbone so it will have easy access ... that was a relief.

They have meds now that they assure me it won't make me "too" sick ... we shall see. They did say I need to bring someone with me for the first treatment to see "how sick" I get.

I will lose some if not all hair - but it will grow back after the treatments.

I have to go once every 3 weeks for 18 weeks.  I will be monitored for my white count and several other levels the whole time.

At the end of the series I will get a full set of Cat Scans and blood tests to see if I need another round or if once will be enough.

I'm going to need to invest in some reading material .... each session is at least 4 hours ... and that is if everything goes perfectly with no hold ups or equipment malfunctions.

They were contemplating doing more surgery to do deeper biopsies due to the aggressive nature of the type of Ovarian cancer I have. But, either way if they found more or not I would still have to go through Chemo. Since more surgery would just delay the chemo they decided against it and will see what things look like after wards.

I have been diagnosed at:

Stage IC (T1c, N0, M0): The cancer is present in one or both ovaries and one or more of the following are present:

• Cancer is on the outer surface of at least one of the ovaries.

• Laboratory examination found cancer cells in fluid or washings from the abdomen.

I am 1 stage away from Stage II  but still in the safest/most curable category.

So depending on how fast the new team can install the port I could be starting all this fairly quickly.  

On the upside I won't have to deal with all this hot hair for summer ;)

Nothing Can Be Easy

I got my results on Thursday.

They found an independent Cancer growing in my Ovary that is more aggressive than the Endometrial Cancer.

He said it was fairly unusual for 2 separate types of cancer to start and grow at the same rate but, it looks like that's what was happening.

Before and after they performed the surgery they did an abdominal wash and both times it showed Cancer cells floating around in there. They matched the cells from the Ovarian Cancer type.

Had it just been contained to the Uterus this would all be over but they were surprised by the Ovarian Cancer as well. It's a rarer type of cancer with a huge long name. This type is sneakier and can hide in places not able to bee seen by the naked eye and can regenerate.

So without getting too technical I have to start Chemotherapy :(

So now I have losing my hair and being sick as a dog to look forward too. Even though he says I won't get sick ... he didn't mention hair and I was in too much of a state to think of a lot of questions.

I still need to heal from the hysterectomy for 2 more weeks then I go back and talk about chemo and when it will start and ask all the questions.

He said it will probably be once every 3 weeks for 6 months. Then blood tests every 3 months after that for a year to make sure it's gone and stays gone.

My head is kind of spinning now and my nerves are shot.

The only thing good about all this is if I hadn't of had the Uterine Ca. they never would have found Ovarian Ca. as is doesn't exhibit many symptoms until its much farther a long and harder to treat.... and all the lymph nodes they took were negative.

So I am trying not to panic and stay positive but when I had my biopsies I heard ... stay positive it's going to be ok but it wasn't ... then when I was told I had to have surgery I was told be positive the surgery will take care of it .. but it didn't .. so now when they tell me be positive the Chemo will take care of it ... well I can't exactly say I can fully believe that.

So I'm scared and worried and stressing. I have so much going on in my head right now it's a wonder I remember to put my socks on before my shoes.

Anyway ... that's where I'm at .... 2 more weeks ...

My only saving grace in all of this is I feel ok other wise and have now lost a total of 220 pounds. That in itself is pretty amazing.

I have to be ok from all this ... I just have to be. God can't have let me get this far just to punch my ticket now.

Right???