Friday, January 6, 2012

Catching up....

Good Morning,

I do love the mornings....especially when I'm at home with my coffee, sweet dogs at my feet, and still wearing my comfy pajamas.  John is slowly stirring and Jason is fast asleep.  He is just here for a week...savoring every moment of his visit and HAPPY there is no health care junk happening while he is here!!!

Regarding the point of this new blog, my cancer has returned and its mad. But, guess what, so am I!!  It is throughout my liver, but not anywhere else in my body.  It is directly related to my ocular melanoma that was first diagnosed in 2001 and then re diagnosed in 2007 and treated.  Treatment was not successful and my eye was enucleated (removed) in 2008. 

Last three years of adjusting to the prosthetic, but largely feeling good and living life.

On December 12, 2011, I went to see the doctor for my routine visit, which included a liver ultrasound since that is the most likely place for my cancer type to spread. 

12/13: Had ultrasound, the Dr. called because spots were discovered

12/14: CT scan of liver, spots are determined to be cancer, but biopsy is necessary for confirmation

12/16: liver biopsy - yup its cancer, now waiting to see what kind of genotype, which will guide treatment

12/28: we know the type and its complicated, must look for a clinical trial that will take my rare of type of cancer

1/3 I learn that I must go to MD Anderson to see specialist. So Happy that there is a specialist in the state of Texas who has interest in this type of cancer.  This will make the third female doctor among my closest physicians treating me right now...loving that! Also, my Auntie Darla and Uncle Keith live in Houston...and my cousins, which will be a light for us during those visits :)

1/5 Dr. Patel at MD Anderson does indeed want to see me and I'm going to see her for the first available appointment, which is January 18 (also the first day of school for me at U.T.- ugh)....

That's the low down. I'm still teaching this spring and working on the Art and Media initiative through our division at U.T.  Signing off for now.  

Love, Peace, and Healing, K

2 comments:

  1. You will be in our prayers! Your beautiful, beaming smile will kick cancer's bootay!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good Morning,
    All of your comments on Facebook and in emails are overwhelming and so sweet. Thank you for rallying around me and lifting me up. My dad had a question about the first appointment. My sister had the same question. "What will happen?" When I go see Dr. Patel on Jan. 18, she is going to assess my class more closely. She has already seen my records and the hospital of course approves your health insurance before they let you in. Dr. Patel will talk to me about the various clinical trials that they are currently running at MD Anderson for uveal melanoma mets to the liver. Based on what I can read and understand, I look like a good candidate for more than one trial. Yesterday afternoon, I picked up my scans from Austin Radiological. JUST the scans from 2009-2011 take up 3 disks! I'll take those with me.
    Today, John and Jason are continuing to build a brick patio in the back yard. Then, we are all going over to spend time with Lea, Peyton, and my precious niece, Kelley. She is the one person (at 3 years of age), who seems oblivious of everything and always just as happy as a toddler should be.
    I bask in her magic.

    ReplyDelete