Who has an extra hepatic artery? This girl!

Leave it to me to be quirky...

Most people have two hepatic (liver) arteries - one to the right lobe, the other to the left. The hepatic angiogram i had last week showed that I have three - one right, two left. The doctors ended up doing a CT angiogram after this discovery and determined which of the two left arteries fed each of the tumors on the left side and made sure only a limited amount of healthy tissue would be impacted by sending the radiation spheres through both arteries.

The hepatic angiogram also showed the radiation "leak" into my lungs from the trial run was 5.5%, which was well within the acceptable range (ideally less than 10%, but must be less than 20%).

So, on March 6 I will have my first procedure to insert the spheres into one lobe of my liver. The downside is I cannot come home for two weeks because the radiation exposure is too much for the kids. The radiation oncologist, Dr. Gibbons, suggested I spend the first few days in a hotel to limit repeated family member/caregiver exposure. Then I will be going to my parents' home for the remaining days.

About 4 to 5 weeks later they will do the other lobe, I will stay away for two weeks again, and hope that this radiation shrinks the tumors in my liver enough that my liver can regain normal function. About two weeks after that I will start chemo again to treat the cancer both in my lymph nodes and the (withering!) liver tumors.

I know following all this medical stuff can be confusing, boring, freaky, etc. Thanks for being willing to keep up with this winding journey.

Valentine's Day

On Valentine's Day Rory turned five. I can't believe my little Rory Bear is five, because I am pretty sure he was just born a day or two ago.

Rory had a dramatic birth in that he needed an emergency c-section and Kelly was at work an hour away. When I called Kelly I was casual....finish what you are doing, come when you can, it will be fine...because that is what I thought. My mom then called him from her office (she worked on the maternity floor) and told him to get moving. Quickly.

I was fairly calm until they wheeled me into the operating room, sans Kelly. He still wasn't there and everyone kept telling me they were just getting me all set so when he arrived we would be ready to go. So...for those who haven't witnessed a c-section, once they are ready (a) a curtain is raised so you don't actually see the surgery and (b) you can't feel anything below that curtain. Once we reached this point (and still no Kelly) I desperately wanted to yell "hand check" to be sure no scalpels were at work, but instead opted to ask every 47 seconds where Kelly was. In hindsight, hand check probably would have been more entertaining.

Kelly suddenly burst (yes, burst, I am not be dramatic at all...) through the door and according to him, the scalpel went to work before the door shut behind him. Much like the day we were married, an overwhelming sense of calm came over me when I saw him and I knew everything would be okay.

As they were delivering Rory I asked Kelly if we could change his name from Rory Christopher to Rory Kellogg. It felt important to me that Rory's name had a family connection, and Rory sharing his father's name felt right.

I am blessed to have this thoughtful, funny, clever, energetic little boy in my life every day. He has taught me so much about life and love.

And how sometimes, it is best just to go and eat the cake rather than take 25 pictures of the cake and candles.