Good News & Bad News

I have some good news and bad news. The good news is that Tyler's baseball team is going to the region playoffs. They had to play a tie breaker game last night to determine the final team that qualified for the playoffs. It was a very close, tense game. Tyler was first up in the second inning. The score was tied 1 to 1. The pitcher walked him to first base. From there he stole second then one of his teammates hit a double and Tyler made it home. I was so excited that I forgot all about the camera. They ended up playing 5 innings. By the time we got out in the 5th inning the score was now 5 to 4 in our favor. All we had to do to win was to keep the other team from scoring. At the end of the 5th inning there were 2 outs, the Angels had a runner on 2nd and 3rd, and their best hitter was up to bat. He had 2 strikes and 3 balls. He ended up hitting the last pitch but our player at shortstop caught the ball. That was the best game our boys have played all year and one of our best players wasn't there. The playoffs start on Monday night. They play the 2nd seat team from Roy. If they win their first game then they get to play the team that was first place from Roy. If they win that game then they play the region winner for the title. I am glad that I will most likely be able to go. It was hard missing his last game of the season which was held the day after my surgery. Tyler hit a triple and two players scored from his run. They ended up winning that game.

Now for the bad news. I guess I spoke to soon about being able to count myself a survivor. Dr. Gray called me yesterday afternoon. He was finally able to get a copy of my pathology report. Dr. Rosenthal had only talked to the pathologist when I saw her on Monday. She hadn't actually seen the report. I had called Dr. Gray on Wednesday to see if it was okay for me to go to the dentist for my checkup and to schedule my port to be taken out. When he called me back yesterday he gave me the bad news that because there was still cancer in 3 of the lymph nodes I have to have more chemo. Most people have their surgery first so seeing cancer in the lymph nodes only helps them determine what stage they are. Because 3 of my 13 lymph nodes still had cancer we know that the chemo didn't get it all.

I am not looking forward to having to go back for more chemo but I am willing to do whatever I have to do now so that my chances of the cancer coming back later are reduced as much as possible. The new chemo will be a different drug combination than I have already had. It will most likely be something called CMF but Dr. Gray wasn't sure yet if that was the combination we would use. As usual I am the odd patient with a unique case. I always give the doctors a run for their money by doing something different than their typical patient. CMF is citoxin combined with another drug. It is my understanding that the citoxin was the easier part of the AC I had during my first 4 rounds of chemo. Dr. Gray said that CMF isn't quite so hard on my body. I don't know what that means exactly other than he said that my hair won't fall out with it. I will probably end up having somewhere between 4 and 6 more doses at 3 weeks apart. When I see Dr. Rosenthal on Monday she will hopefully decide when she thinks I will be healed enough from surgery to start the chemo again. The soonest I would expect to be able to start would be the July 24th but since that is a holiday here in Utah it will more likely be on July 31st. That is also the day that I already have an appointment for Shawn with a new doctor for his stomach problems. I might end up having to go on a Monday instead of Thursday. If I started on July 31st then I would finish chemo on October 2th if I have 4 more treatments or November 20th if I have 6. If I have 4 weeks to recover before I start radiation then that would put me starting radiation the week of Christmas. I doubt they would want to start that week because of the holiday or the following week because of New Years. Most likely I will start radiation at the first of the year and continue through mid February. With six months to recover it will be this week next year that would be the earliest that I could have any type of reconstruction. If I have surgery in mid July then the 2nd procedure would be approximately 3 months later in October, right around my birthday, nice present huh. It is disheartening to think that it will be almost 2 years from my diagnosis before I will be finished with everything but the hormone treatments.

People keep asking me how I keep doing this. I don't have any choice. The option of not doing the treatments and just waiting for it to return somewhere else just isn't something I am willing to risk. So for now I just have to do everything that is recommended to become cancer free. It helps me to keep in mind that this is all part of God's plan. I may not be able to see it now but there is a reason I am going through this. Many good things have come out of this and I am sure more will also. Your continued prayers are greatly appreciated.