Take My Urine, Please.....

On Thursday, I spent  24-hours gathering urine for a super special MD Anderson test. I believe my doctor orders a 24-hour urine collection for a hormone test (5-HIAA) in order to determine what tumor markers my body is giving off within a 24-hour period. I gather this in a big orange jug that I keep on ice until its ready to turn into the lab. When I arrived at MDA on Thursday morning, there were no orders for the test. So no one would actually take the jug with my pee in it. I had to ask nicely for a nurse to take it and hold it until the orders were written with the strict understanding my pee would be discarded if no one (DR.) claimed it by the end of the day.

I easily recognized the humor and irony in this situation. I couldn't give my pee away, damnit. I  spent 24 hours gathering this stuff and 2 hours trying to find someone to take my big ass jug-o-pee.....sheesh.

I usually carry my big jug in a large bag with handles. I just do. I don't feel comfortable toodling around MDA with a huge orange jug. EVERYONE knows what's in the jug. It's gross, but it's part of the deal. The first bag I was carrying it in actually ripped and the jug dropped about 4 inches to the floor in a very crowded blood draw room. I could hear 20 people (okay, maybe only 8) gasp in unison. All eyes were on me and my jug-o-pee. I started giggling, while my favorite phlebotomist, Mercedes, howled with laughter. I actually got applause from the crowd for not spilling my pee.

Great news today. We measured the tumor with a the usual chest x-rays, blood and urine tests and a CT scan. No change in size for the largest tumor (tami), but the smaller satellite tumor that is connected to her did shrink. This means the weaker cancer cells (or low-hanging fruit) have been eliminated. Now we have to keep pounding away at the tumor with more of the Avastin and Rad001. I thought, as did Dr. F, this was great news. Now, you might be saying to yourself "What the hell Jan? A satellite tumor? I didn't know about anymore tumors..."

Explanation: I have one really large tumor on my liver fondly known as tami tumor. Another, much smaller tumor is located on another part of my liver, but is connected to tami. I call this a satellite tumor. A third tumor is located in a lymph node next to my pancreas. The two smaller tumors are irrelevant unless we get tami under control. We remove tami and the smaller ones are removed as well. We control tami and we control them all. It's all good. Believe me, it's great news.

Sister Sharon went with me this time. She did a good job helping to quell my nerves during the prep time for the CT scan and offered the appropriate amount of empathy after the test and again throughout the evening while I dealt with the indignities of iodine and barium. It was cousin Julie's first time to miss a CT scan. However, she called regularly to make sure Sharon handled things appropriately. Thanks for the massive amount of support. Onward with the study.

smak, pow,

jan