And This is What the Doctors Said

I am cleared to eat what I want. I can even eat kale and beans which I was warned away from the last visit. I can pick up Bennett, I have done that twice tonight. It twinges, but I will keep working on it.

Dr. W, the surgeon, said he is done with me and I am released back to Dr. B. I told him "nice work," and off he went. I am going to miss him. He has such good positive energy- very gungho about life. I like that in an oncology surgeon. The only bad news he told me was he had to remove some scar tissue from around my stomach and it came back cancerous. That means there is still a lot of non-visible cancer in there- you know cells here and there, that have not yet grown into tumors. The won't get the chance because...

I next saw the formerly dreaded Dr. B. We are going to use the same protocol with the same drugs for the first dose next week. The following dose with then be augmented with Avastin. This is a super tumor shrinking drug that they have had a lot of success with colon cancer. We can't use it the first round of chemo because my colon has not healed quite enough- so we wait two weeks for it. We get to use Neulasta - yay, that helps a lot with the fatigue and low blood cell counts. Both Dr B and Dr W said that my energy should be better now that I can eat.

I did not have to have a talk with Dr. B. I decided to change the way I think of him. He is my life-saving partner, just the way he is. He is not a gungho type, and maybe that's just as well. He is always thinking and thinking, and that's what I need in an oncologist. Yes, I will take the talented dork with no social skills thank you very much.

And, I should say, I have been eating up a storm. I am like a beast let out of a cage. I gained 5 pounds in two weeks. And I a totally psyched about it. I am still not at pre-surgery weight, but I will be soon enough. Possibly tomorrow with the way I going.

I start chemo next Tuesday for sure. At 10am. Ding ding, round three.