A Confession

On 9/14, I received the great news that the tumors in my liver were stable during a 9:30AM appointment with Dr. S. I drove from that appointment down to St. Peter's to see Dr. McElrath, my oncology surgeon, with the windows down and the music up. It was a great drive down and I thought my appointment would be a quick check and he would transfer my care back up to my doctors in Glens Falls.

Instead, he came into the room with the news that he was concerned that the radiation and chemotherapy had not done their job. That the cancer in my cervix was not cured. That the treatment which works for the vast majority of patients may not have been effective for me, and that I may need a hysterectomy.

My response: I laughed. I did. Because...seriously what are the chances? Oh wait, it is me. I should have known better. I had three hours of feeling pretty good about the direction things were going with my treatments and then, crash.

Fast forward to today when I saw Dr. McElrath and Duncan again. They did a visual check and they both felt a little better about how things are looking, but have decided that in about four weeks that Dr. M will do a biopsy and those results will then determine if I need surgery. I am hopeful that the surgery is not necessary - both because I want the cervical cancer to be gone, but also because tissue that has been treated with radiation does not heal as well as normal tissue and there can be some very serious side effects to the surgery. As always, I remain hopeful.

In other news, the St. Peter's radiation oncology department now has a new rule, known internally as the Murphy Rule, about checking blood counts before internal radiation treatments. I was also told repeatedly by the staff that they were unlikely to forget me. Again, I had to laugh...as I said to them, I know I was a difficult patient, but unintentionally so.