Knock on wood

I'm trying to not get too excited about how I'm feeling today. It's just one day, but I've run a couple of errands, I had lunch with Hector... and I haven't napped... yet.

When we met with NP S last month, she said younger patients (that's me in the colon cancer world) can sometimes have a slower recovery from cryoablation and it can take two months. TWO MONTHS. That sounded crazy to me at the time, as I had returned to work after big surgeries in less time than that. But here we are, 8 6 weeks after the cryoablation and I'm finally having a decent day (edited because wait it's only been 6 weeks since the cryoablation, the Y90 was 8 weeks ago).

Actually

• Bloodwork, appointment with Dr. T NP S and treatment at Siteman South County

There are a couple new things on my CT that we are going to watch, but they could just be side effects from the cryoablation. My next scheduled scan, in 12 weeks, should give us a clearer picture on them. Some good news is that the two tumors in my liver that were treated by cryoablation seem to have reacted well to that treatment. Since my scan is "not bad at all actually," we are going to try using maintenance chemo again (Xeloda and Avastin) to keep my disease stable and not growing. The peritoneal tumors that Dr. C saw during my surgery in May are still not large enough to show up on my scan, so that's good, but then we also don't know what is going on with them. To paint a mental picture of the peritoneal tumors, NP S used the analogy of when you blow on a dandelion and all the little bits go everywhere. So we know I have all of these little bits, but they aren't grouped together to be large enough to appear on the CT yet. I still haven't decided if I like that analogy or not.

So the idea is for my own immune system and the maintenance chemo to work together to keep them small. Bring on stability...

Speedy

• CT at the Barnes West Imaging Center

I think we set a new record today for speed of appointment. We were in and out of there in less than 30 minutes. There won't be any news about the results today so we'll enjoy the weekend still hoping for the best. And we'll see what next week brings.

A week for tests

• Bloodwork, appointment with Dr. T and treatment at Siteman South County

I was feeling a lot of anxiety last night about today, but I woke up feeling ready. We got to Siteman early and settled in. They accessed my port for my bloodwork and left the needle in (reasoning: because I was scheduled to get treatment after I saw Dr. T.)

It was a long wait to see him, a couple of hours, but it was worth it to see him face to face. And while starting Folfori chemo today was an option, he thinks that we need to run some tests first to establish a baseline right now status for my disease before we do anything new.  So I'll have a CEA blood test, a Guardant liquid biopsy test and a CT this week. And I'll meet with Dr. T again next week to go over it all, unless the CT makes the decision really clear. In that case, it could be something that we discuss on the phone and jump directly into next week.

We talked about Folfori, about maintenance chemo possibly being an option again and about immunotherapy clinical trial options. It's so much to think about.

To free our minds a little bit, Hector and I went for a walk, the longest one we've taken in months. It was slow and hot and well... the conversation kept circling back to all the things we talked about with Dr. T... but how could it not.

Nappy nap

• IV fluids and meds at Siteman West County

Another day to give my recovery a boost. My pod was crowded this morning. One person getting their first chemo treatment ever. One person getting the chemo that I will most likely be getting next week. Hard to relax when it is so busy, but I did manage a little nap during the 2 hours that we were there. (Hector also did some napping in his chair.)

Liquid breakfast

• IV fluids and meds at Siteman West County

Fluids to help prevent dehydration and meds to help with nausea.

Deep breathe

• Bloodwork and appointment with Dr. T NP S at Siteman South County

Time to try some new things to start feeling better.