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A Brief Update

I haven't posted much recently about my ongoing journey and where things stand. I thought I would post this brief update for my family and friends who have been following my ongoing story. I will add a bit more after my upcoming appointment this Wednesday with my Oncologist. That may well be a story in itself as the outcome will determine how much longer I have to endure this fateful journey.

Radiologist

Last Wednesday (The day before Thanksgiving) I had a followup appointment with my Radiologist. He (out of the 3 Amigo's - Radiologist, Oncologist, Surgeon) is more or less overseeing the journey from start to finish. Since he was one of the original doctors from my beginning diagnosis at the first hospital and the one I had consulted in my move to a different location and clinic, he is still sort of the head of the team. The appointment went well for the most part. I had more questions and concerns about my nutrition and weight. I still do not know if I am on the right track and without having consulted with a nutritional expert I really can't be sure. I have gained back much of my weight that I lost in the beginning. It is a good sign in a way to have done so as I have come a long way in that respect from looking like a poster child for the Christian Children's Relief Fund to where I am now. But I still have concerns as to whether or not it is good healthy weight or just weight. A difficult question for most people to answer or understand as currently I only have 1/2 of a functioning digestive system. We did go over many issues, but still the most disturbing to me was my blood pressure. At the appointment it was found to be low - 90 over 50. To me not a good thing but they were not all that concerned about it. It is more of a concern to me as it has been low since my recent emergency hospital stay after my "Chemo Crash". For anyone who does not remember it, I did post something on that a couple of months ago. As a bit of a refresher, I had begun my post surgery chemo and was into cycle 2 (around the 5th week) when my body decided it did not like the treatments and thought it would shut down most of its normal functions. After a little over a week of not being able to eat or being able to keep down what little I did I admitted myself to the emergency dept at my nearby hospital. If I had not, I probably would not have made it one more day before I or someone would have had to call for an ambulance to bring me in. Anyway towards the end of my hospital stay my blood pressure went low and has been there ever since. Something I will also mention to my Oncologist. Whether or not he is concerned about it, we shall see.

Oncologist

So, this Wednesday (28th) I have an appointment with my Oncologist. I am sure the beginning of that will be one very unpleasant experience. I am bound to get some sort of lecture on how I should have come back immediately after my hospital discharge so they could continue the 'poison' chemo treatments again. Who knows, I may even lose my cool and begin to tell him off for all he has put me through or tried to put me through since the beginning of my treatments. For those of you who have followed my story especially the posts on my "Guardian Angels" you will know what I am talking about. I ended up making some decisions on my own that have so far in my mind been more beneficial in my journey and saved me from a lot of unnecessary lifelong life altering results. As it took me over a month to gain back the weight I again lost from yet another bodily system interruption as I have tried to let him know in the past that when I and my body are ready for the next onslaught, I will let him know. In that respect, the first part of the appointment should be quite an interesting and unpleasant one so he had better hope I am in a good mood that day.

As for the remainder of the appointment (If we get that far) I would imagine will involve the next steps that will be taken to get through this and end the journey once and for all. As far as I know right now, there are several possible ways or directions we could go in.

1.) He may suggest we continue where we left off. This would put me a few months behind on my final completion date. I won't be too happy about it but not much I can do. Stuff happens.

2.) He may tell me we have to start over again due to the disruption. This would add another 4 to 5 months of chemo and not make me a very happy dude. As I had a tentative appointment scheduled with the surgeon for next month for the final testing and surgery prep, that will all have to be changed and rescheduled for later.

3.) He may state that too much time has passed and there is no feasible sense in continuing the chemo. That would be no sweat off my butt as I have been ready to end this journey for some time now.

There are a few other issues and concerns that I have that will play into the outcome. The blood pressure issue and some of the clinic practices, directives and how they go about determining who gets what treatments and how it relates to their 'bottom line' as far as scheduling and planning. It should be a very interesting day. We shall see what happens.

In the mean time, I hope everyone has a great week ahead. I will post more on the 'Big Wednesday' after the dust settles.