Jeegaré Man-ee
(You may need to click on photo to read entire blogpost) I have reached the 2-year mark in this cancer journey. The first year was icky, with flu-like symptoms and abdominal pain and then, the ickiness of Chemo and Radiation. Compared to that, the second year, however, was lovely!
So, this is how I celebrated living through a whole year without taking any cancer medicine or treatments:
a visit to the Emergency Room for nausea and abdominal pain.
I've spent my life rejecting the idea of the ER, unless I might have a severe accident or heart attack. Everything has worked itself out with time, a call to the MD or, at most, a visit to Urgent Care. But, that day, in my imagination, I thought the tumor had grown or spread because the pain was getting worse. My thoughts went to Walter Payton. He had Bile Duct Cancer too and led to a serious infection of his Bile Duct called Sclerosing Cholangitis. It can start with a blocked bile duct that could be temporarily treated with a stent. I wondered if that was what was starting to happen and wanted to do something before it worsened.
The CT, Ultrasound and lab tests indicated that the tumor looked just the same and, although the Bile Duct is being "squished" a little, it is not blocked, so they gave me something for pain and I went home. My Oncologist recommended that I check in with a Gastroenterologist, who ordered a CT Angiogram to evaluate the circulation in my liver. That test indicated that the tumor is completely surrounding *one vein and partially surrounding 3 others, and, even though it is not completely cutting off circulation, it is likely decreasing the circulation to the pancreas, stomach and duodenum. He says that this is causing digestive issues as well as abdominal pain.
It's comforting to know what is going on.
What an incredible thing the liver is! It does so many things, that when it's got a problem, it's like Mom going on an extended vacation. John tells me that, in Farsi, when you tell someone that you love them, you say, "jeegaré man-ee", which literally translates to “I want to eat your liver.”
I do want to eat John's liver, but I'll have to stick with taking meds, and a bland, low-fat, caffeine-free, protein-rich diet in small, more frequent portions. Maybe some chicken or calf livers too.
*For my medical nerd friends: "the tumor has completely encased the middle hepatic vein 360 degrees, partially encased the right and left hepatic veins <180 degrees and encased the Inferior Vena Cava 180+ degrees."
