Cautiously Optimistic

I had quite the week with three doc appointments to go over my "future" treatment schedule.  Last Wednesday I met with my Liver surgeon.  He looked at the incision and said it looked good.  There is one part still "healing" but he wasn't concerned about that.  After his questions about weight gain and activity level he Asked if I had scans scheduled or had other Doc appointments.  We told him about the Oncologist appointment the following day.  He told us he wanted to see the following scan and see what that showed in it and meet with me in three months.  My next meeting with him is end of July. 

On Thursday I met with My Oncologist.  He decided not to proceed with more chemo at this point.  Studies show 12 treatments are effective but more are not usually any more effective than the first 12.  I had 11 treatments which he said was close enough to 12 to suit him.  He said the next step is to get a "clean" scan.  His question was to whether to do this by CT Scan or PET-CT.  He opted for the latter but pushed the scan back until late April in order to get an effective scan without showing "false positive" hot spots.  He asked for the middle of May then scheduling made my doc apt with him May 8.  My scan will therefore be sometime the week prior to that.  I fear this may show a few hot spots on the liver which will concern my Liver surgeon but will likely be scar tissue. 

Today I met with my Colo-Rectal surgeon.  He said base on every one else's notes I am doing well.  He wanted to see my "small" incision just like the other doctors did.  He thought it looked good and thought my belly felt good.  The pathology report came back with 1 out of 37 lymph nodes showing positive.  I asked him if it was taken out.  He said yes and during the conversation he got another book and showed us where and what the "nodes" look like.  He claimed they were to small to see but the section he takes with a Colon Resection there are a bunch.  He managed to "catch" 37  in my surgery.  Pathology only found one of those that was positive.  That means either only one was infected or the Chemo treatments worked that well that all the cancer was gone from the others.  In most surgeries like mine he claimed they typically see 20 - 30 nodes as positive. He said with as well as I am doing my focus should be on gaining my weight back and eating healthy.  Over all he said he would be watching my scans as they happen but until I feel like I need help from him, he doesn't need to see me any more.

My Doc today confirmed along with all the others, they are cautiously optimistic.  Most people with Stage 4 cancer they would not say cautiously optimistic. 

So back to "normal" life until my scan in May.  And hopefully I can hear the words "cancer free".

--Kent