A Sugar(Baker)-Sweet Update

In my last post, I hinted at a health-related update, and here it is.

Last week, as promised, Dr. Sugarbaker read my PET/CT report and looked at my scan. I expected his wife and office manager, Ilse, to call me a day or so later with his reaction. I expected her to tell me that Dr. Sugarbaker thought the scans were good and that he would agree to operate on me in January. This had been the tentative plan for a while, and I was fully ready to move forward with it. To be honest with you, I was actually looking forward to it. A month or so on the East Coast, a good opportunity to detail each aspect of my surgery and recovery for other cancer warriors, and another chance to dance down the halls of Washington Hospital Center.

But it was not to be.

Dr. Sugarbaker emailed me his thoughts. He started by noting that I had a "small defect" that looked cancerous within my incision scar tissue. He said that this was common for folks in my boat -- people who have had surgery for colon cancer with peritoneal mets. He said that it's pretty clear that the tumor cells are shrinking and that I should find a local surgeon to remove the stuff in the scar tissue. He concluded by saying he wouldn't recommend a second look surgery with him since there is no evidence of disease in my abdominal cavity.

Translation.

I don't need another gigantic surgery with Sugarbaker because I don't have peritoneal disease. YES.

Instead, I have some weirdo straggler cells trapped in my incision scar tissue. UM, I CAN HANDLE THAT.

So I need a far easier, less invasive surgery to reach cancer-free status. AGAIN, YES.

Dr. Lenz and I haven't quite figured out all the details of our new plan, but it'll entail finding a surgeon here in California -- probably at Norris -- to do the procedure. I think surgery will still be in January, but I'll be back on my feet so quickly that we'll all forget that I even had surgery. If surgery is in January, then that means I'll have 6 more rounds of FOLFIRI and Avastin and I'll be home free. Actually home free. As in, see you never again, cancer. This is pretty outstanding news, ladies and gents.

Back when I had my first "pick it out/pour it in" surgery with Dr. Sugarbaker, he was almost positive that I'd need another big surgery with him about a year later. My pathology wasn't perfectly clear, which meant that there were still some invisible cancer cells in my gut that could have grown into full-blown, disruptive, visible peritoneal disease. Thus, we would need to go through the same massive incision wound, multiple hour long surgery, heated chemo song and dance sooner than later. But, against the odds, those cells didn't grow into peritoneal disease. As Dr. Sugarbaker said, there is NO EVIDENCE OF DISEASE in my abdominal cavity. Do you know how sweet those words are? No. Evidence. Of. Disease. I've got a stupid tumor in my incision scar tissue and that's friggin' IT.

The man who knows peritoneal disease better than any living person in the world has said I don't need another big surgery with him, and that there's no disease in my gut. The verdict is in:

• Dr. Sugarbaker rocked the surgery.
• Dr. Lenz rocked the chemo.
• I rocked the vegan diet, the exercise, the acupuncture, the meditation, the sleep, and the stress levels.

And we all are rocking the hell out of cancer.