Appointment with oncologist

Michael had an appointment with the oncologist today, a Dr. Alexson. I tagged along, although I have to say that I would rather have stayed home because I was so terrified of what this guy was going to tell us.

Let me start off by saying that I LOVED this doctor. He was a little goofy looking, which was somehow comforting. He grew up in Queens and still had a bit of a NY accent, so he and Michael swapped info on where each of them grew up, as M is also from NY. He was very warm, very down to earth, and really made an effort to put us at ease.

The doctor spent at least an hour with us and was very thorough, asking M a million questions about his family medical history, his personal medical history, etc. He then went over the MRI report with us.

Michael and I both spent the entire weekend thinking about the MRI he had on Friday and wondering what it might have shown. It was an awful sort of torture, waiting and being so scared and imagining the worst. There were many tears shed over the weekend from the fear and stress of it all.

The MRI showed that the cancer is pretty localized. It's at a stage 3, which means it likely involves surrounding lymph nodes, but the MRI showed no evidence that it's metastasized to other organs. That was our worst fear, that it had spread beyond the colon. Just hearing that felt like this great weight was lifted.

They still want to do two more scans - a CT PET scan, and an ultrasound, to get difinitive answers about the extent of the tumor, but at this point they are moving forward with getting our insurance to authorize treatment, which means Michael will start chemo and radiation by the end of this week or early part of next week. He will have a "pit line" in, which is a line that will go into a vein in his arm and through a particular artery over his heart, and the line will be connected to an exterior pump that will infuse chemotherapy meds into his body continually for about 6 weeks. He will also have to go in 5 days a week for radiation. This type of chemo is apparently not likely to make him feel sick or lose hair, and he is more likely to feel the effects of the radiation after the first couple of weeks. The doctor said that there is no reason to think he won't be able to continue working throughout the treatment, although he will probably be doing a lot of work from home and eventually will start to tire easily. Thankfully the partners at his firm are allowing him whatever flexibility he needs to get through this.

The goal is that the chemo and radiation will shrink the tumor. After radiation is complete, they will do another type of chemo for several more weeks, and then he will have surgery to remove the diseased tissue, and the surgery will be followed by one more round of chemo.

It's a lot. It's going to be quite a road ahead, but the doctor said we have every reason to be optimistic. And I do, I feel very positive and hopeful and optimistic now.

Not surprisingly, everyone has been incredibly supportive already. We are so fortunate to be surrounded by so many caring people. A neighbor not only watched the kids for us today while we went to the oncologist, she surprised us with a homemade chicken pot pie for dinner. A friend has let us know that she has a connection to someone in a medical marijuana co-op! This made me laugh :D - I hope it doesn't come to that, but hey, you never know. My midwife wants to donate blood for Michael because she said that chemo oftem leaves patients so anemic that they need a transfusion. Offers of whatever kind of help we may need are already pouring in, and I can't help but wonder what we've done to earn such esteem. So, although they are very small words, thank you, to everyone.