More appointments, more info

On Monday, I met with Dr. Healey, my orthopaedic surgeon, for my six month follow up. My ankle is fine and he agrees that the pain in my back and leg is from my sciatica nerve. The question is what is pinching it and where, and the MRI of my spine (scheduled for August 25) should answer that question.

We discussed at great length his opinion on lung surgery to remove one/several of my metastases. He reiterated that the gold standard for leiomyosarcoma is to cut it out. That's the only way to potentially "cure" it. So, if the scans I have at the end of August show no new tumors, he believes the surgery should be done. He doesn't believe that stability in the lung mets matters, only that there are no new tumors anywhere else.

He also likened the fight against cancer to a baseball game. Where most other sports (other than cricket) are set against a clock, baseball can go on forever. Similarly, your survival with cancer should not be boxed into a time frame. You can play as long as possible and even get extra innings, so if you have a strong spirit, and relatively good health, you should plan to stay in the game as long as possible. He said he's known of patients who have had up to eight lung surgeries because their general health and lung capacity remained good. I told him I was nervous considering one lung surgery, let alone multiple, but I suppose it can be done.

My appointment with the thoracic surgeon is scheduled for Wednesday, August 5, in New York. We will see what he says. I'm hoping, if he agrees to do surgery, that we can put it off until mid-October, when some personal events we would like to attend and some upcoming business items can be taken care of before I'm down for the count for several weeks. I don't like the idea of being on a chemo that obviously is no longer working for me, nor would I want to be off chemo completely, but that's something we'll have to hammer out.

Speaking of chemo, my treatment went fine yesterday although I was a bit disappointed that my hemoglobin had only climbed from 9.7 to 10.1 over two weeks following the shot of Arenesp, the red blood booster. Dr. Windsor informed me that it sometimes takes two or three treatments before a boost in the counts is seen -- despite Kathleen, the chemo nurse, telling me that shot should last for up to three months. I guess she was thinking positively, and Laura, the other chemo nurse, is going to be rubbing her hands together in glee that next Thursday they will have to shoot me up again. She loves to torture me. Lest you think that she really does get her kicks from sending me into a tizzy, this is the same woman who yesterday brought me in a special Sleeping Beauty bandaid for my port after treatment. They know that I go home and hit the sack for a long nap, so she brought me an appropriate bandaid. They are both caring, thoughtful, chop-busting nurses, and treatment would be a chore if it weren't for those two. Thanks, ladies!

I will be back late next week after my appointment with the thoracic surgeon and my treatment to bring you up to date. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and thanks, as always, for keeping me in your thoughts.