Friday 11 October 2013

CT Scan done, on we plod...

On Sunday I had my CT scan. This time I did it in Netanya, at the Laniado Hospital, which is much nicer than the overcrowded clinic in Bnei Brac where I did the first two. I sat there for the compulsory two hours of drinking yukky contrast medium, even though none of this stuff had any way to get into my nether regions where the scan was most important. Then came the time to lie on the table and get injected with radioactive iodine, which was even more fun. At least it made my whole body hot- it was a little cool in the waiting room, ha ha. Then wait for the disc and ask how long we have to wait for interpretation, and I got a shock; three weeks! We asked to be given priority, although we didn't really have much of an excuse, and the receptionist said she would try, no promises. So, imagine my surprise when the next morning I got an email from the clinic saying my results were ready! They really came through for us, well done Mor Clinic!
Now, the results look good; no visible metastasis anywhere, no enlarged lymph nodes, the only thing is a thickening of the tissue around the operation site which is almost certainly scar tissue. I've faxed the results to my oncologist and now we are waiting to hear if these results are good enough to get a green light to go on to the ileostomy closure. We are hoping they will be, we are so longing to get out of here back to Chasamba, our floating home, waiting faithfully for us in Puerto Princesa in the Philippines. These are the last few hurdles we have to jump.
Generally I am feeling gradually better, although the improvement isn't as fast as I had hoped, probably because my liver has taken quite a shot and may take a while to recover. I have started walking, although today was too hot- we're into the ups and downs of temperature that typify autumn here, and today was almost as hot as the middle of summer. Yoga is good, I can do all the lesson now, even when it is a hard one, and I have started slowly to clean and reorganise our little house; it had got into quite a mess since I didn't even try to clean towards the end of chemo. Luckily neither of us really care. I am juicing most days, and really like the combination of beetroot, apple, carrot and celery- it is really tasty! Also still taking wheatgrass, and eating dark chocolate, drinking astragalus tea... I'm trying everything, more or less, and eating plenty of salad and fruit. Really just so if the cancer does come back I can say, "Well, I tried everything!" The problem with that being that there will always be some quack remedy that I didn't try, but at least I'm having a fair crack at it.
The best thing about finishing chemo is that I can eat ICECREAM! I have had a whole summer with no air-conditioning allowed and no icecream, I think that is the cruelest part of all. Now I can eat it, and I'm enjoying it, just finished a big bowl of  chocolate chip and vanilla, yum!

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the detailed update sis - keep getting better.

    Lx.

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  2. You know what else is good? Brown rice! I used to think brown rice was for hippies and health nazis, but since I started my new diet it turns out that brown rice is really good. And tasty!

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    1. Actually I don't like brown rice much, too sticky for me, also wild rice ditto. I love Basmati rice, and fluffy white bread, those are my two big sins! Anyway I can do without the roughage just now, until I get my large intestine back.

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  3. so glad you got the results quickly! I have a ct on the 17th and I'm getting the results the same day. I'm worried about my lungs mainly. so happy for you that you are done with chemo! 12 rounds right? I'm a mess Pirate Girl. I'm about to start chemo and my marriage has fallen apart. He was "bored"... I can't write about it yet on my site. so i'm dumping here.

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