Friday was a perfect day weather wise with lots of sunshine, which was awesome. I had some stuff for work that I needed to get done but I know I could work on later in the weekend. Tessa and I were able to take the kids to the playground in the morning, before my Doctors appointment at Georgetown. (Maybe she'll post some pics?).
Both our sets of parents are out of town now (with Tessa's in the Philippines and my parents at an Adult summer camp hosted by Chautauqua Institution). Given that, we needed to take the kids with us to the hospital as I really couldn't ask Tessa not to attend with me (She's been great at asking questions and remembering all the things that I do not). We went to the interventional radiologist's office. He's the guy who navigates through my groin artery (while I'm awake but drugged) and asks that I take a breath in or out so he can slip the artery catheter up and up and closer to the liver tumor. (Next scheduled on the 20th)
He reviewed the same set of MRI pictures that my Hepatologist reviewed. Except, he explained them a little further. The smaller tumor showed signs of necrosis! What's that you ask? We're kicking the little tumor's booty.
The larger tumor is still being stubborn. So on the 20th of July when my next surgery (TACE) is scheduled, they'll go in and do it all over again. Same chemo and same dossage but this time, they'll add the element of a new catheter gadget.
NERD ALERT! Did you all ever read about the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf? It could have been prevented if the Blowout Preventer hadn't failed. This new catheter gadget acts as a blowout preventer. It will fully block the artery so that when they inject the localized chemo into the area with the tumors in my liver, there isn't any chemo "blowback" that comes down the catheter. The doc said it might be more painful for me, but they did a good job of drugging me up the last time, so we'll see.
Until I can report back more, i'm off. Be sure to keep your eyes open for the next post:
#WineGlassForWhitey
http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/yourway16/WineglassForWhitey
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