Interpretation of The Discovery & The Road Map ahead

I'm totally not sick of talking about the cancer stuff at all! And I never mind answering any and all questions, especially when they're coming from people I adore!

SO yes on Tuesday when I went in they found at least 5 more tumors through out my lower abdomen. Two of the ones that they are most concerned about are the ones wrapped around my colon. One is wrapped around on the right side which is your ascending colon and the other on the left side wrapped around my descending colon. (Who remembered that you had 3 different parts of your large intestine, not this girl! 10th grad human anatomy and physiology was a LONG time ago). There is also a small one on the outside of my liver pressing up into my diaphragm, which makes me get the hic ups all the time, also not so fun. And the other two are just around I guess.

We got to look at the CT scan but it was a lot to take in. I also had been on A TON of drugs for at least 48 hours for the pain which complicated the situation even more. But Dr. Bice, not to be confused with Dr. Bryce, was awesome enough to sit with us for almost an hour showing us all the different scans so we could see where and when the tumors had started growing. The two on the colon are each about 6x6x5 give or take a cm and the other ones are smaller in size. So they aren't anywhere near the size they were last time, but they aren't like tiny & insignificant either (bummer).

So Tuesday and Wed were spent discussing whether or not they were going to do surgery. And surgery wouldn't have been to cure the cancer at all. It would only be to remove tumors that were blocking the colon. This really wouldn’t have been an ideal option because if they would have had to do that then they would have also had to start a colostomy bag which may have ended up there permanently. (Bad for fashion and for any attempt at a sex life!) I mean as human we all know each other poops but it’s not like we want to see it… So they did a colonoscopy on Thursday am and discovered that everything was all clear! And let me tell you... I have no problem waiting another 25 years before I have one of those done again. WHEW!

Then they would have started chemo right away on Friday morning but I spiked a 103 fever on Thursday afternoon/evening so they wanted to wait. Not good to start compromising your immune system when it's already in a weakened state. So I will have to do chemo again but the regime and drugs are going to be different. They aren't more aggressive or stronger necessarily, just different, because everyone's body reacts so differently to chemo. And they really haven't treated enough people with Monophasic Synovial Cell Sarcoma to really know what works the best for the majority of people. And I guess even if they did, so maybe my body still wouldn't have liked that option so we may have had to go though the same thing anyway.


So here is how chemo will work this time around. Each cycle is 21 days long and I'll have to go through 6 cycles. I'll get chemo on day 1 of the cycle and day 8 of the cycle. Then be off for the next 13 days and the whole thing will start all over again. The two drugs I get this time are Taxotere and Gemzear. I'll just get one of the drugs on day 1 and then both of them on day 2. Supposedly though this regime will be a little less insane on my body... It only takes each drug about 45-60 mins to drip in, so at the most chemo might last a couple of hours. Whereas last time the chemo process could take from 6-8 hours! Yikes! And there is only a slight chance that I'll loose my hair again vs. the 100% guarantee that I would the last time. And there is supposed to be less nausea but a lot more fatigue. So I guess we'll just have to wait and see....