Diagnosis: Afterparty

One 30-minute video visit with my consulting oncologist yesterday and suddenly we’re back on the cancer superhighway going 100 miles an hour. It’s as if I’m in Madonna’s video for “Ray of Light”

I woke up yesterday morning with just that one video visit on the docket, and I ended the day with 2 surgical consults and 2 surgical prep scans scheduled over the next 3 weeks.

You heard me right: VODKATRINA IS HEADED TO SURGERY!

My current hospital hadn’t yet sent over the images of May’s PET scan to the consulting oncologist yet, but they did send over the corresponding write up. The video visit subsequently went exactly as I pictured it would go: “Hey this write up sounds great! Looks like things are shrinking! When we get images, I’ll consult with surgeons!” End call.

An hour or so later, my consulting oncologist personally called me back—he apologized but he was too excited and went ahead and talked to the liver surgeon based off the May write up. (Remember, the colon tumor has always been operable, it was the liver & possibly any other tiny floating/growing cells elsewhere that were more concerning) He said the liver surgeon looked at the February scans and said he would’ve been confident enough back THEN to do the surgery, and based off the shrinkage from the new PET write up (without having seen the images) he’s more than good to go now!

Am I upset that I could’ve chopped all of this out at an earlier time? ABSOLUTELY NOT. In fact, I’m extremely happy I went through 8 rounds of chemotherapy before surgery—there’s now less liver that needs to be taken out AND the tumors have gone practically dormant AND we’ve spent the last few months attacking any microscopic cancer that might’ve been floating around. This was totally the right move. And we’ll pick back up after surgery too, if not for anything simply as clean up chemo.

That being said, I’m officially on chemo vacation as of my last infusion. One of the drugs, Avastin, can seriously interfere with wound healing and increase bleeding risks; you need 6-8 weeks before and after surgery to make sure it’s fully out of your system. So, the surgical countdown clock has officially started as of May 27!

By the second surgical consult on June 17, I’m thinking I might have a surgery date & can actually start planning work, life, and DJ gigs around both surgery and recovery timelines.

Since this is going to be Krang’s last Pride month, I’m definitely sending him off in style. If all goes according to plan, Krang’s eviction notice has officially been served., because quicker than a ray of light, he’ll be gone: