If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans

We met with the oncologist last week and he informed us that there were some additional tests that came in after the initial tumor board that are making them reconsider whether or not I should do Chemo. This came as quite a shock to Joe and me as we thought we were past this.

On Friday we spoke to another oncologist as Swedish that was recommended by a couple of friends and he agreed with the first doctor and recommended that I do the chemo.

Wanting an opinion outside of Swedish, we went to the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance this Thursday and the consensus was the same. He also asked if anyone had talked to us about the spot in my stomach that was visible on the Pet Scan. My surgeon told us there was an area they couldn't see well on the pet scan and he looked at it laproscopically during my surgery, but I don't recall hearing more about it after that. Nevertheless, this Dr. is recommending checking it out further with a scope.

Which brought us to yesterday, and our final oncology appointment back at Swedish Issaquah. We really liked this oncologist and we love the facility. I have a couple of friends that work there so it just feels right to me. His opinion was the same as the first 3 and he also mentioned the stomach and showed us the Pet Scan.

So, bottom line - I'll be doing 6 months of chemo after all. As my friend Sheila told me, no one wants to be the idiot that gets voted off survivor with an idol in their pocket. So that's how were looking at this. Insurance. Because I'm told if the cancer comes back, it comes back as stage 4 automatically, so if we can do anything to prevent this, that's what we need to do. I love the saying Live.Laugh.Love - heck, it was our wedding them. So now it's time to focus on the Live.

So, I am having a scope/scan of my stomach this Wednesday, and if that is all good, my chemo port goes in Friday and I start chemo 1/19. It will be every other week and takes about 5 hours to administer I'm told. I then go home with a device in a fanny pack (seriously?!?!) that I have to wear for 48 hours that continues to pump in the meds. After that, I go back to the hospital and it gets removed. Rinse and repeat 12 times over the next 6 months.