Surprised

(Please click anywhere within this post to read the WHOLE post)

I am feeling really quite well!  I've been more active than usual and have mostly figured out how to handle the digestive stuff that bothered me for a year!  What a blessing!  I know, beyond a doubt, that this is a result of God's mercy and I truly feel the prayers and support of my friends, family and local church.

God is good!  Life is good!  No matter how this thing called life turns out, I hang onto the HOPE that we have in our Creator, Jesus Christ.  

He has a plan.  He is merciful.  He is here with us. He cares.  He leads.  He comforts... He does it all.


... New Hope, Pennsylvania...

Because my right ribs have been hurting, I had a routine CT scan a little early - in July and followed up with an appointment with the Oncologist today.  I was quite confident that I was going to quickly write and post the blogpost already formed in my mind. 

But, I didn't.  The script changed!  I'll tell you about that in a minute.

I wasn't surprised when the Oncologist showed John and I the CT scan, done in July, and said that, overall, it did not show a significant change in the size of the tumor. 

It's still the size of a baseball inside of a football.  Thanks to "MyChart", I knew all that. The MD that read the images in July said the tumor was a teeny-tiny bit bigger and the Oncologist said it was "hard to say".  They both agree that it is still only one tumor that has stayed contained in my liver.

That's good news!

I also wasn't surprised that the Oncologist looked at my lab results and agreed they were about the same:  mild anemia, mildly low white blood cells etc.  Again, "MyChart".  Nothing that needs any treatment!

Good news too!

What did surprise me was that the Oncologist did NOT pressure me to try a new FDA-approved daily pill, a "targeted therapy" that has several side-effects and does not shrink bile duct cancer tumors, but only might increase progression-free survival by 2-3 months. He actually agreed with me that it was probably not worth it!

That was a bit of a surprise!

I also thought he might agree to remove the chemo port, since there was no chance I'd have chemo in the future.  Last year, my brain remembers him telling me that the standard chemotherapy had already been tried and did not work. (In fact, it seems to have left me with lingering neuropathy in my feet, thank you very much!)

BUT, now he has another patient with Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma (Bile Duct Cancer in the Liver), who has unfortunately had her tumor spread to the lungs.  BUT, she has started taking a chemotherapy called Folfox - commonly used for colon cancer.  Those tumors have started shrinking!  Her side effects are not that bad.

Hmmm. I wasn't expecting this and really didn't think there was another medication that might fight this ugly blob.

So, we'll see.  In 3 more months, another scan.  Until then, I'm expecting things to turn out JUST THE WAY that God has ordained them.

And until then ... no blog posts unless there is a new surprise to report.


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