I have WHAT?

            August 13, 2023 is the day that my life changed forever. My husband and I had just gotten home from a wonderful weekend where I got to see one of my friends who I hadn’t seen in years, and we got to see Eric Church. I started feeling bad on the drive home from Chicago, and thought I would just sleep it off. However, once we got home the pain started getting worse, so off to the ER we went. I thought it was just epigastric pain. However, as soon as the Dr came back into the room after my CAT scan, my hubby and I both knew that there was something more going on. He asked if I had any history of liver cancer in my family. No sir, but I did lose my sister last year to colon cancer that had metastasized to her liver. He said Ok, let me talk to the radiologist again, I’ll be right back. When he came back all he said was that I needed to follow up with my Primary physician. I did so, and an MRI was ordered. After the MRI I was told they were sending a STAT biopsy request to Cleveland Clinic and they would call me to schedule it. Well, Cleveland Clinic never called me (As of March 1, 2024 they still haven’t.)In the meantime, my hubby told me that he had been on University Hospital’s website and they had a form to fill out to request an appointment with an oncologist. (At this time we were pretty sure it was some sort of cancer even though no one would say those words to us.) I had my first appointment at UH Seidman Ccancdr Center and met Dr. Mahipal. He was wonderful and answered all of our questions. He ordered a liver biopsy and a lot of bloodwork. 2 weeks later when I went back, he still wasn’t sure what sort of cancer I had, because they couldn’t be sure from the bloodwork. We had thought it was bile duct cancer, but at this time the Dr thought it was something called Neuroendocrine tumor cancer or NET. He referred me to Dr Muhammad, who is a NET specialist. A PET scan was ordered, and we found out that they couldn’t tell where my cancer began, but that there were innumerable tumors in my liver, in my hepatic lymph nodes and a small spot on my right humorous. I began Lanreotide monthly injections and in January, I began Lutathera treatments. This is a radioactive isotope  infusion that directly targets the tumors. I have 3 more treatments of this and then we will do a PET scan to see how much the tumors have shrunk.  Hopefully this will work and make it more comfortable for me on a daily basis.  






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Circle of Life

      What do you think of when you hear Circle of life? For me, the picture in my head is Rafiki holding Simba up for the animals of the pride land to see. The song is eve playing in my head as I type.      Actually what the circle of life is we’re born and we have our parents taking care of us. Most of us have wonderful parents, but some of us don’t. We continue to grow and stretch our boundaries, moving away from our parents and toward adulthood. We get married, have kids of our own and watch them grow. We don’t think about the fact that as we get older, our parents are getting older too. Then our kids grow up, go to college, get married. We realize that our parents are slowing down, needing more help.. Some of us even move our parents in with us. In an in-law suite, or rooms just for them. Some of us can’t do that so they go into assisted living or have help coming into the home. Then we worry about our parents as well as our kids. When is the right time to try to get them to stop
Read more

Trying to love me

         This post is going to be difficult to write. It might be difficult for some people to read. This is your warning. If you have been in a toxic relationship, whether it be a parent, a significant other or a friend, this could be triggering.      I had a friend. I called her my best friend. More than that I called her my sister. We grew up together in church, from the toddler room through the youth group and high school graduation. We had our ups and downs. A lot of ups and downs. I never thought about why that was. I figured friends fight. Right? Well, fast forward to 2016. I lost my Gram in February of that year. She lost her mom right after that. During this time I was figuring out that MY mom is a narcissist. I was also figuring out that this friend really only wanted to spend time with me if I was the one who drove 4 hours to wherever she was living at the time, dragging my kids with me. Then she would come to visit her family, who lives about 20 ish minutes away from me and
Read more

Ugh. Drama.

Image
      This meme is how I have been feeling lately. Why? Lots of reasons. I detest drama, yet I somehow seem to find myself in the middle of it all the time. Then I have to hibernate, lick my wounds and heal a bit. This last time hit me hard because it was from someone who is never supposed to do that to me, and it played on my emotions big time. However, everything worked out and I have had time to think rationally. I have learned that I must ask myself questions when something like this happens.  1. Did I have all the information? (No) 2. Was the person trying to get a response out of me? (Yes) 3. Could I have acted differently than I did? (Yes. Probably)  The next time a situation similar to this arises, I will remember what happened last time and not react the same.  I hope.  Next time, I will stop, think about it, pray about it and then respond.  I hope.  Notice I didn’t say I know I will? That’s because I don’t know how I will respond the next time it happens. I just have to hope
Read more