It has been a good week and a good weekend. I’m working on getting stronger so I can tackle another large surgery. We walk 2-3 miles every day. I’ve definitely lost muscle mass since my surgery in January, but I’m slowly rebuilding muscle strength. I’m managing to contribute more and more to home chores and most days I tend to forget that things aren’t quite up to par. I’ve also gained a bit of weight back. Strangely enough I haven’t lost a lot all in all, but it’s good to have a bit extra so I’ve got some I can lose after the coming surgery.

As everyone else, we are starting to get pretty fed up with social distancing. We challenged it slightly and enjoyed largely having our neighbors Daiana and Brian over for dinner on Thursday. Our fence was replaced this week and Daiana got the brilliant idea to do a shared dinner since there was no fence between us for a few days. Our backyard table is pretty wide, so we stayed on a safe distance. Oh boy I’m fed up with all the precautions these days. I’m very much looking forward to being done with my surgery and getting my bloodwork back to normal levels so we don’t have to be as careful – however times have unfortunately drastically changed and we all need to be cautious for quite a while longer. 

On Thursday we also had family over in our front yard. We had two birthdays to celebrate, Deena and Chris. Not much of a celebration, but we at least got to say happy birthdays in person, but alas, no birthday hugs.

On Friday I saw both the oncologist and the surgeon again. The oncologist wanted to get a status update on how it’s going with me since I started on blood thinners. The ultrasound showed no blood clots in my legs, so there is no need for inserting a filter – yay – one less procedure. I believe I will get one more ultrasound of my legs to be sure that there are for sure no blood clots there before the surgery on July 2nd.

To the question Lars asked: how could they not see the tumors that are there on the CT scan? I asked both doctors about it. The surgeon said that any scan is notoriously ineffective – which is why he always wants to check with his own eyes. I asked the oncologist how I will be monitored in the future since CT scans are so unreliable. He said that we will talk about that in more detail after my HIPEC surgery and that there are several ways it can be done; both new and not yet available. To be continued…

And – some rather good news. The surgeon did take biopsies of the lesions during the laparoscopy. None of the biopsies showed any presence of cancer cells, just mucin. It is almost too good to be true. It is absolutely wonderful if the chemo, or the removal of the primary tumor has killed off the remaining cancer cells. We of course don’t know for sure before he has taken out the rest and after the pathology tests of it. To be continued this as well…

The coming week I have an appointment with a new doctor that is going to schedule me for a colonoscopy. Hopefully this can be done the day before surgery so I only have to drink a gallon (four liters) of laxative once. My intestines need to be empty for both procedures – and it is so unpleasant that the surgeon suggested to do the procedures on consecutive days – if I can manage to go without food for two days. Time will show how well I handle that.