Sunday, August 10, 2014

What Was the Plan Again?

I've gotten some questions about my situation that makes me think it would be worth a brief rundown on where things currently stand...

Diagnosis: "Non-curable" stage IV colon cancer that has metastasized to my liver and lymph nodes. 

Colon cancer treatment: Surgery. And while I'll likely be on the frequent flyer plan for colonoscopies if the liver cancer doesn't kill me, the colon cancer was basically eliminated by the hemicolectomy.

Liver cancer treatment: Chemotherapy. I'm getting a combination of drugs (see my post on side effects for the list) delivered over approximately forty-six hours every other week. The plan is to go through four cycles of chemo and then have another CT scan to see if there's any indication it's working. If it is working, they'll continue the chemotherapy through something like thirteen cycles and then assess and adjust again. If it isn't working, I have no idea what they do -- and am not in the mood at the moment to guess. 

But actually, my expectation is that the plans will change as things roll along and the cancer does whatever it does. This seems to be a disease managed in bite sized chunks.

Which means three more cycles of chemo (or six weeks) and then a CT scan to see where we are. 

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