GAGWTA!
Have I mentioned I really love seeing you guys here every day? I just went from
reading Beth's post about Pat, to
reading Merry's post about the oil change. And oh yes, scrappinmom, I do this every day as I drink my two cups of coffee.
I thought of a another Stage 4 story. My neighbor's brother in his early 40s was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer a short time after my diagnosis. Things were not looking good at all since it was found by accident and had spread to quite a few places. In fact, this neighbor/friend had just given my a medal from Medjugorje and when I heard his story I gave it back to her to give to him since I honestly wasn't sure he was going to make it and I told her he needed it more than I did at that point in time. Oh and BTW, Beth, he lived in NYC and was also treated at SK. Anyway, I'm happy to report that after almost 3 years now he is doing well and even back working again.
Beth, here's another thing that might make you feel better. Does anyone remember the oncologist I took care of in the hospital a while back and what he told me about staging? I wish I could find the old post but anyway, what he said was that technically if you are diagnosed at Stage 2 and you develop mets later on, you are still considered Stage 2
with recurrence. According to him you would not really be considered Stage 4 unless your staging at the time showed mets then (BTW, he is a Professor of Medicine at a major medical school so he should know what he's talking about
). Now we all know that different doctors can tell you different things, but I've thought about this a lot and I think if it were to happen to me it might make me feel a little better to think of it that way. I guess it's just semantics, really, but I don't know, maybe it might help.
Beth, I would also like to think that because the areas of mets were found early (as opposed to mets that has grown unchecked in someone like Pat, unfortunately), the chances that it can be controlled are better and longer.
I guess this is as good as any to mention that my HIDA scan of a couple of weeks ago was normal so I will not be having my gallbladder out. In order to do that there has to be some evidence of abnormality or the risk of lifelong diarrhea is there which according to my surgeon would be worse than the pain I have now in my abdomen. Immediately when I got that news I was bummed and wondering what else could be causing this pain I've had for almost 3 years now? The surgeon does still think it sounds like gallbladder to him, but unfortunately there is nothing else that can be done at this point in time so I'll "live with it". I'm not sure what this means for my next oncology appt coming up. I have the feeling my onc will suggest repeating the CTs of last summer to see if anything has changed.
I'm trying to "stay positive" and not worry about it, but it's kind of hard to do when you feel this pain in your side all the time.
FWIW, my FILs HIDA was also normal, and in fact on Easter at my in-laws, my MIL offered she thought for both of us it was probably just "gas".
I also took DD8 to see the ENT this week. Let's just say I was not thrilled with the doc. DD was giggling during the exam when he was holding her nose and having her repeat the word "NO" over and over (I would have been laughing, too) and he didn't even crack a smile, just told her to stop laughing and say NO again. She ended up crying instead.
He went over the surgery with me and I'm thinking to myself, yeah, right, I
might let you operate on my daughter - NOT!!
Best was on the way out of the garage, I forgot to have my ticket stamped so they charged me $11 to park for 45 minutes. My mood was not the best at that point since I got practically no sleep that day, having worked the night before, and had to get up for THIS. Well, the girl at the booth wanted me to back up and go get my ticket stamped even though there were 4 cars already behind us. Needless to say, I was not happy and lost it a bit.
DD was mortified, LOL!!
"Mom, I can't believe you said that"!!
Oh well, we laughed about it afterward, I was like, sometimes you just can't help yourself.
Have a good day, everyone. We have an 8am soccer game this morning.