The Results Are In ... Here's the Plan

You know me, I like to be loud and boisterous and jump up and down a bit. That's what I planned to do when I got the results of the CAT Scan and MRI. I'd say it ended up with a mild Woo Hoo. Here's what we know.

CAT Scan was great. It focused on my lungs where the cancer had spread to. Now, my lungs are clear and cancer free! Thank goodness. They can amputate/remove some parts of your body that have cancer. All of both lungs is not one of those options. So the chemo did what it was supposed to do and killed all the small nodules of cancer in my lungs. Homerun!

The MRI ... now that's where it gets a little sticky. We always knew the tumor was still going to be there. (When I refer to "we" now, I'm speaking of Chris and I. However, I didn't know most of this, I just go along with what he says.) So "we" expected to see a mass, "we" also hoped it would be dead. The problem is we're just not sure. So that means surgery.

I swear this pregnancy gone-awry must have been Satan's Spawn or something because this is a persistent little fucker. Two rounds of chemo and the radiologist says it could still be residual cancer. So, so annoying.

Good news, the tumor is half the size it was in 2008. It's likely all scarred over. But that's part of the problem. It likely scarred itself over last time, there were cancer cells still alive in the middle, it laid dormant for 2 1/2 years and then popped up again. The goal is to never have this tumor pop up again. So we're taking it out.

We (now referring to Chris and my doctors) have always talked about a possible resection of this problematic part of my uterus. But they kept saying don't put the cart before the horse. We might not need to do surgery. The chemo should take care of it. Well now we are at the other end, post chemo, horse in front of cart (Amish Buggy in my case) and we DO have to cut. The question now is who will do that, who knows how to do that?

Have an appointment with another Gynecological Oncologist at the University of Pennsylvania in a week and a half. But Dr. Evans has warned me that Gyn/Onc's are typically trained to take the uterus out, not to save it. So I don't know if he's gonna be my guy.

Dr. Goldstein, in Boston, says he knows a Reproductive Endocrinologist who might be able to help. As they explained it to me, a doctor of this specialty aims to get your pregnant and deals with fertility issues. So he might be able to cut just the tumor out of the uterus and leave the rest of it in there.

Some assurances: Dr. Goldstein feels confident we can still conceive. That's a plus. He says because of a uterine surgery I would not be able to have a regular delivery. I would require a C-section so I don't rupture my uterus while I'm pushing. As Marcia always says, none of her grandchildren were born naturally - all C-Sections. I told her I wasn't into that and hoped to skip surgery and push myself. But it seems that's out. No problem. If I actually get to carry my own kid in my own belly and he or she has 10 fingers and 10 toes, I don't care how the baby comes out.

We're not rushing to adoption, IVF or a surrogate yet. We can't harvest any eggs yet either, because I was just on chemo. I go from zero to 60 in like 3.2 seconds. But it's still one step at a time. Today's step: find a doctor with great hands who can cut out a tumor and nothing more. If you know someone, call me.

Left foot, right foot. Left foot, right foot. I didn't jump up and down at the MRI report, but I will jump up and down if Chris and I ever get pregnant!