Whoooohooooo!

I had tons of questions for Dr. B. When I finally read the surgical report and the scan reports. The questions just kept coming. As usual I prepare the questions before the exam so Julie and I are ready for the discussion. I needed to know if there was still tumor on the vein we've been worried about all along. tami was squashing the vein, which should be as big as a thumb, until it was almost flat. Totally flat meant no blood supply to my body and it would have been fatal to me. I also wanted to understand other things like why does my abdomen still hurt? What's with the sciatica pain? Why is my hair so curly now? Why so much muscle and joint soreness, etc.

Dr. B looked at the scans while Julie and I waited in the exam room. Julie was really sick. She started feeling bad the night before in the hotel room. She stopped talking and was pale and nauseous sick. After Dr. B came in he noticed how sickly she looked gave her a prescription. I started with the questions. I asked him about the vein. He looked at us and said, there's nothing on the vein. He showed us the images and there just doesn't seem to be tumor there now. It just looks like a hole in my liver. Dr. W saw the scans right before he came into the room with us and you could hear him bellow "holy shit" all the way down the hall. He told the intern to get some slides ready for their next conference. I was no longer the "eggplant that ate Chicago". I was now the most improved patient who once had a "gigantic" tumor and did I know how lucky I was? The stuff Dr. B couldn't get out seems to have responded to the chemo and ablation. They can't actually say I am cancer free because of the nature of how this cancer grows. But it grows slowly so we may not have to worry about it for awhile. Dr. B asked me twice if I realized how much more time he bought me compared to what we thought I had.

Blink...blink

I blinked all the way home. Julie and I usually have time to review everything we discussed in the exam and rehash details. But this time, Julie had to be sedated because of her nausea. I was driving. I just had my thoughts to work through the news. I'm still in shock. But I understand I have so much more time than I thought I had. I understand winning the lottery. I understand a dream coming true and my prayers being answered. All that is quite clear to me.

We'll monitor my health with blood tests and scans. I'll always have to take Sandostatin shots and have regular scans. I also have to have a very small tumor (6mm) taken out of my lymph node in July or August. We haven't been concerned about such things before since the liver tumor was the danger. It's minor surgery so I'm not worried. I'm not worried about much anymore. And for some reason, not many things seem very scary...

Thank you. I'll continue to post. But for now, buh bye tami. Glad to see you go. BTW, Julie is feeling much better now.

This is an all skate!