when cancer came in: The next segment in my journey

On Monday, after I met with the ostomy nurse and had a blood draw, David and I met with the medical oncologist and the surgeon.

I'll go the the short part first. The surgeon reviewed the results of the pathology test with us and, again, said the results were very good. He said I could start incorporating foods that had been restricted into my diet and I could get back to tennis and working out! He quickly reviewed the final surgery I would have in mid-February which would take an hour and require a 3-5 day hospital stay. Then I am free, baby, free!

Now the more involved part. I will need to have a port surgically placed for the chemo. I am calling my port my Bot fly (the pictures of them under the skin are too gross for me to post here, check out on your own if you want to). The type of chemo, Folfox, is too toxic to feed directly into veins. It looks like I will have the port installed this coming Monday. I will be under conscious sedation and from prep, through surgery, to recovery it will take 4-5 hours. Then, my chemo treatments will begin just two days later on Wednesday. The appointments start at 12:20 with a blood draw that lasts half-an-hour (they have to access the port, that means inserting an IV line). Then at 1:30 I meet with my provider (doctor). Then at 3:00 they start the pre-chemo infusion of steroids, anti-nausea medication and some of the Folfox. Then around 6:30, I get outfitted with a fanny pack with a pump that I will wear for two days while it pumps the chemo into me. Friday around 4:30 they will disconnect the Alien monster from my body (the one that pops out of the guys chest as he slumps face down into his spaghetti). This will be the routine, every two weeks for four months. On weekends, I'll get to recover. I get a teach on all of this on Friday, I can't say I completely understand all of the details yet but here are some images from the web.