Knowing that my chance of having cancer is good. There is still that little bit of hope in me that it isn't...but I'm also prepping myself for it to be cancer.
My parents and I head down to Milwaukee. We have a meeting with Dr. Kassam and a lot of other doctors. I'd say its a bad sign that lots of doctors will be in the room, but at the same time, having them all there means they have a plan intact for me, right?
We stayed at my brothers in Appleton the night before, so that we can be to Milwaukee bright and early the next morning. When we get to Dr. Kassam's office we didn't have to wait too long to be seen. Once we enter the room we have a few nurses in with us and then Dr. Kassam is in just a few minutes later.
Tuesdays are his office visits. Every other day he is in surgery so this day is always very busy for him. Sometimes breaking news to people like us, sometimes checkups with patients who previously had surgeries, and also giving out good news to others.
Following Dr. Kassam in the room this day is the "other doctors." A neuro-oncologist, a radiologist, and an oncologist. Dr. Kassam also had his nurse and NP in the room.
He did break the news to us that it is cancer. He apologized so many times for taking weeks to get results, but every feedback that he had gotten, he wasn't satisfied with, so he had it sent out to more testing.
They finally had it narrowed down to a cancer that is very rare. Its more commonly found in around ten year old children. They were basing my route of removal on what they do for children, but a stronger dose of everything.
We will be starting my adventure with chemotherapy, shrink the tumor as much as we can, and then I will have surgery to remove what is left. And after that- radiation. They wanted to get started right away. The following week if possible. They asked about Monday, but that was my daughters birthday so I asked if we could put if off a few days.
Wednesday August 13th it is!
My dad headed home on the greyhound (it was quite comical walking him to the bus station with his backpack). He made it down for every surgery or important appointment but always needed to get back to work. My mom and I stayed a few more days to have all kinds of tests done.
I had another MRI and a CT scan. Another test was a PET scan to make sure that there wasn't cancer anywhere else in my body. If there was cancer anywhere else, this could be a big change in our plans. The PET is the first hurdle to get over.
"Please come back clear, besides the tumor in my head."
I had a meeting with my Oncologist, Dr Howard. She was very sweet and nice. She went over the three chemo drugs I was going to be on and all the side affects possible from them.
It was a bit scary!
Losing your hair is the obvious one, but losing your eyelashes, eyebrows and nails all shocked me! It can also cause infertility or early menopause. This one bothered me the most. I'd always wanted to have more children someday, so I prayed this didn't wreck that chance for me. There were many more side affects but these were the biggest ones. And everyone reacts differently to the chemo drugs.
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| We spent the first night at the Wisconsin State Fair |
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