There Is No Stage Five

Oops.   I really do have every intention of getting home and at least doing one more post to say I'm home--wouldn't that wrap it up nicely?  Of course it would, but no, then I don't do it.  In defense of my attention span, we woke up at home on my mom's birthday, my brother and sister-in-law arrived to surprise her (and us!), and that's way more fun and important than ticky typing a blog with my whereabouts.  Evidence of fall: pumpkin carving, end of the flower field, fuzzy horses, and a melting cat. Though, in truth, I did write a furiously long post, then reread it and deleted it.  I was remembering a consult I had with my original surgeon in WA.  This was last summer when liver and bagel bite joined the party and I wanted to talk to him about surgery, as it seemed to be the best option at the time.  He summarized my questions and concerns and replied with, if you're trying to avoid (physical) pain, you're not going to be able to.  Cancer and suffering go

I'll get over the tortoise thing eventually, but today's not the day. I had an interstitial treatment to my liver today, and was positioned in a way that I could actually watch it all on the ultrasound.  I wish I had it on video, it was so freakin' cool.  First step, lidocaine.  Second step, inject photosensitizer directly into the liver and tumors.  The photosensitizer looks like shooting stars across the screen.  A whole universe of them.  A whole lot of wishes and I didn't miss a single one.  Third, he showed me a (rather substantial *gulp*) needle against the computer screen to show me how he was going to place it to thread the fiber optic through--fairly superficially because then the laser could treat the entire area of shooting stars.  Too deep would basically black out anything that the end of the needle had passed.  The laser intensity and duration has all been more this trip.  Nothing has changed in terms of the therapies, it's just all...more.  It's v

We met with the surgeon today to talk about what he thinks would be the best next step.  PDT has opened a lot of doors that weren't open in August.  Because of the lack of blood flow, radioablation, cryotherapy, and microwave ablation are now all options.  I've heard of exactly none of them when it came to treating non-dermal cancers.  The theory and application is actually very similar to PDT.  Ehh, similar, but different. In my case, radioablation is too non-specific and cryotherapy works on too small an area.  Microwave ablation, however, I'm an excellent candidate.  Music to my ears!  He says it's the most controllable of the three and will be the most efficient procedure and recovery.   He said they can sometimes actually see the tumors shrinking during the procedure.  It's done in a CT with an interventional radiologist.  I asked him, since he's a surgeon, if he'd recommend surgery over anything else, and he said no, because it's too aggressive and

There hasn't been much to update on since the previous update.  Something about a watched pot... Leannda and I got back to Mexico on Sunday afternoon and have been assimilating into Mexican medical life again.  Bloodwork and an ultrasound on Monday, an MRI/detox from MRI contrast on Tuesday, and an interstitial treatment today.   MRI had ambiance--they play seagull and beach noises through the headphones to join the cacophony of  bangs, clicks, and horns.  Very soothing.  *cawsplash* (Also, cost update: $230 plus $40 for dvd and printed films) The good: Labs look great.  Really no major changes, but a couple of levels that would indicate some inflammation--no big surprise there.  The "I'm making cancer" parts are all trending towards "I'm not making cancer."  Not just in a "normal for a cancer patient"way, but in a "normal for a normal human" way, which is very encouraging.  The ultrasound that showed little to no blood flow to the tu