Survey Says.......

We finally met with the oncology team at MSTI this morning and all test results were revealed.  Are you ready?  Wait for it........     Wait for it........  Julie has CANCER!  Totally boring, typical, nothing special colon and liver cancers; both are stage 4.  The primary tumor was removed by Dr. Verner a little over 2 weeks ago, and she will begin chemotherapy on Monday, August 13th to hopefully shrink the tumors on her liver.  Unfortunately, there is no cure for liver cancer, and average life expectancy is 1-5 years. 

As far as chemo treatments go - Julie is getting a very standard version called FOLFOX. She will receive one 3-hour treatment twice a month.  Here's a fun fact: the FOLFOX chemo contains 3 separate drugs, one of which is a constant drip through her port for 48 hours.  She will check in at MSTI, receive her 3 hour session, but one of the drugs takes much longer than the 3 hours to administer so guess what they do?  They send her home with a chemo ball in a fanny pack!  Doesn't that sound like fun?  This chemo will continue to drip for a full 48 hours at which time she returns to MSTI and they unhook her from the cute little ball.

Side effects?  There are several, but pretty mild compared to the chemo Jeff started yesterday.  You heard me.  Jeff started his chemo yesterday, treatments 5 days a week for 4 weeks.  His therapy isn't actually chemotherapy, it's called bio therapy, but still the same nasty chemo side effects.  He will feel like he's been hit by a truck after every treatment.  Julie will fare much better.  Her side effects consist of neuropathy (tingling in hands and feet), extreme sensitivity to cold, mouth sores, nausea, fatigue, and loss of appetite. 

Julie will continue treatments indefinitely.  After the first month she will receive a scan that reveals one of the following:
      a. the tumors are shrinking (yay)
      b. the tumors look the same (meh)
      c. the tumors are growing (boo)

During the visit w/ Dr. Zuckerman we also realized that her incision from the colon resection is infected.  Shoot!  She started antibiotics today and there's a chance she'll need a small procedure to drain the site.  She also received a chest x-ray to see if there is anything suspicious going on in her lungs.  We still don't know if the cancer is contained to the colon and liver, but Dr. Zuckerman assured us that if there is more cancer, it will not affect treatment or the outcome. 

Time to get our game faces on! 
take care-
jen