Have you noticed that when you first start walking in the forest that you may stumble over branches and trip over rocks but then you begin to find your footing? And as the walk continues the trail becomes easier for you to see, even though there may be less of it visible? Today I started to find the trail. The visit to the oncologist helped me understand the treatment regimen. It will be FOLFOX and Avastin for 6 cycles minimum (one cycle…
I wish traffic through LA was as smooth and non existent as when going through the desert, but no. Today James and I spent most of the day driving back and forth to meet with a HIPEC surgeon in LA. Our GPS also decided to show us two different locations with the same address – so if LA traffic was not stressful enough this definitely made me have a proper rage fit in the middle of Sunset Blvd. I was…
I am not a stranger to climbing mountains and now I have to climb two. The mountains are called intravenous (IV) Chemo and HIPEC. I normally enjoy climbing, but I will not enjoy these climbs at all. However I hope that when I have reached the final summit – that I can sit and enjoy the beautiful view and be very proud of my achievement. I am going to prepare well for this. Since I’ve already been through a de-bulking…
My condition is rare, possibly only one in a million people. It has been seen often enough to be characterized, but only by specialists. In the operating room, the team quickly classified the disease as appendiceal cancer, and gave it a low-grade. Grading tumors generally refers to morphology (how they look compared to normal cells) and may not be indicative of how aggressive the cancer is growing. A number of specimens were taken and forwarded to Johns Hopkins. I continued…
Cherry blossoms are symbolic in the lives of Japanese samurai. Samurai had a strict moral code to honor life – and death. They had a duty to simultaneously realize the inevitability of death and to release any fear of it. I realized I had to face this fear when I slowly woke up from my surgery on January 27, 2020. Besides from a whole lot of blur I remember two things – the first was a mans voice saying, “Here…