A Meeting with The Doctor
Through all of this, I had actually only seen Dr. Kebria, my gynecologic oncologist, on day one of this whole thing when he performed the emergency biopsy and sent me to the hospital for tests. He did call me in the hospital to discuss the treatment once I'd been diagnosed, but up until this afternoon, I had not seen him again.
Needless to say, then, that everyone was looking forward to our meeting with him today. Lots of questions were asked and answered, more by Ryan and my mum than by me, as I continue to be in some sort of indescribable fog surrounding this entire experience.
First off, I'm glad to say that I still like him and feel very comfortable with him. He is warm and nice and I trust him. Which is good.
Questions answered (that I remember):
- The "normal" PAP results letter is generated automatically. Not that they don't look at the results, but with all of my bleeding, there was really no way to get a CORRECT reading from a PAP, so mine most likely did TEST normal and when the results are normal, the doctors don't really look at them. The letter just goes out.
- The cancer is actually officially a Stage IIB, not the IC that we originally thought. It's staged that way because of how the tumor is partially in the vagina, not because it had spread to the lymph nodes.
- There will be no exam to see the progress of the treatment until the treatment is actually DONE. This bothers Ryan, but we are trusting that the course of chemo and radiation they have prescribed was chosen for a reason.
- Best case scenario, which everyone seems to think will be the case, is that after the current treatment and subsequent internal radiation treatments, the cancer will be GONE and we will know this for sure a few months AFTER treatment is completed when I return for another PET scan.
- Worst case scenario scares the shit out of us all... but no one seems to think that it will go there. All I'm saying is it involved the phrase "much more than a radical hysterectomy" and the word "colostomy". ::SHUDDER::
- They're going to add another drug to my next chemo to try to help with the nausea I've been having. Yay!
I'm sure there was more, but like I said earlier... foggy head.
I missed work today because I was feeling so sick and so tired. Kind of depressing, but hopefully I'll be good to go tomorrow. And with that - I am going to bed. This is probably the latest I've been awake in weeks. I blame Storage Wars...
Lots of love to all, Phoebe
Needless to say, then, that everyone was looking forward to our meeting with him today. Lots of questions were asked and answered, more by Ryan and my mum than by me, as I continue to be in some sort of indescribable fog surrounding this entire experience.
First off, I'm glad to say that I still like him and feel very comfortable with him. He is warm and nice and I trust him. Which is good.
Questions answered (that I remember):
- The "normal" PAP results letter is generated automatically. Not that they don't look at the results, but with all of my bleeding, there was really no way to get a CORRECT reading from a PAP, so mine most likely did TEST normal and when the results are normal, the doctors don't really look at them. The letter just goes out.
- The cancer is actually officially a Stage IIB, not the IC that we originally thought. It's staged that way because of how the tumor is partially in the vagina, not because it had spread to the lymph nodes.
- There will be no exam to see the progress of the treatment until the treatment is actually DONE. This bothers Ryan, but we are trusting that the course of chemo and radiation they have prescribed was chosen for a reason.
- Best case scenario, which everyone seems to think will be the case, is that after the current treatment and subsequent internal radiation treatments, the cancer will be GONE and we will know this for sure a few months AFTER treatment is completed when I return for another PET scan.
- Worst case scenario scares the shit out of us all... but no one seems to think that it will go there. All I'm saying is it involved the phrase "much more than a radical hysterectomy" and the word "colostomy". ::SHUDDER::
- They're going to add another drug to my next chemo to try to help with the nausea I've been having. Yay!
I'm sure there was more, but like I said earlier... foggy head.
I missed work today because I was feeling so sick and so tired. Kind of depressing, but hopefully I'll be good to go tomorrow. And with that - I am going to bed. This is probably the latest I've been awake in weeks. I blame Storage Wars...
Lots of love to all, Phoebe
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