Howdy peeps. Finally an update, sorry for the delay… I didn’t have much to report and then I get information from scans that requires some further tests or explanation and then I just get lazy or distracted and BOOM!! Months have gone by. Sorry!!

I’ve been getting chemo (FOLFIRI+vectibix) every other week since July. Good times… At least my AFLAC cancer benefit is going STRONG!!!! Cha ching! Seriously, if you have a family history of cancer (or are accident prone) this is an amazing benefit. I know that AFLAC wishes I would stop “filing claims”, but they just pay out so well!!

I had CT and MRI scans in mid January. They both showed that one of the two lesions on my liver had shrunk some and the MRI also indicated that the L2 spine lesion that was seen back in June was still there… but wait… there’s more. And it was a little bigger, like my ass. JK. I’ve learned a lot about CT vs MRI vs PET, but in general they all pick up different things and have differing sensitivities.

This past summer after they saw that lesion on the spine I sought out some other opinions in different states, in order to determine what treatment would be best at that time. I also asked each doctor if they were concerned about this spine lesion. Neither doctor was concerned about it, nor thought it was actually disease (cancer). People seemed to think it was a scar or an old injury (which I found strange because it wasn’t on MRI’s from 2015/2016, but what do I know?).

Back to mid January: the lesion had grown since this summer. Again, people didn’t seem alarmed, as colon cancer doesn’t normally go to the bones. I was able to get a muscular skeletal radiologist to review the MRI. The radiologist this time recommended a biopsy, as in his opinion, he was pretty convinced this was actually metastatic disease (meaning cancer had spread). A biopsy would not only confirm what is going on there, but if it confirmed things as being cancer it would also support any treatment options for insurance purposes (like radiation). There was a lot of back and forth and what not in order to get this all set up.

I had the spine biopsy done in mid February. The results were fantastic. It was NOT metastatic disease, but actually just a hemangioma. Hemangiomas on the spine are benign tumors usually found by accident and are nothing really to worry about, so this is great news!! It’s just a collection of blood vessels, no big deal. A huge relief. Take that AFLAC, more claims!!!

I had scans at the end of March to monitor things. Everything looked good still. The two lesions on my liver have basically disappeared, one is barely noticeable. The plan is to stay the course on this chemo regimen for a few more months. I’ll be scanned again at the end of June, I’ll have blood tests to monitor things too. Hopefully if things continue to look okay I can maybe drop off one of my drugs from my current regimen. Then maybe I’ll have more hair or less hair or be able to be in the heat or sun for the summer. Fingers crossed, ha.

Again, I apologize for the lack of updates and what not. I had been putting off an update waiting to get scans reviewed and then appointments for biopsy and then results and then more scans. In January things sounded pretty bad and then voila, it’s February and it’s not so bad at all. I feel like I dodged a bullet or was the lucky recipient of one heck of a miracle.

While I was very lucky recently, others I had met and became friends with through this journey were not as fortunate. Sadly, a couple of my friends passed away in January and February. It’s hard to lose friends that you meet along the way, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. They are people that understand what you go through and you have a common bond with, a pretty easy, immediate connection.

On lighter notes, here are some other items I had intended for past updates in no particular order:

The rash on my face is random, my skin is so freakin’ dry it’s ridiculous. My head hair is growing ever so slowly… and strangely. I don’t know if there’s going to be a curl to it or what. It’s just weird right now, kind of thick on top, not so much on the sides. It’s bizarre.-UPDATE: I shaved it back off, it looked ridiculous and no one was kind enough to tell me. LOL.

During all of this drama in January/February we were also having to get little Lucy’s knees fixed. We found out in January that she has two torn ACL’s (or CCL in dogs). One is torn completely as we suspected, but then we were surprised to find out that the other one is partially torn (and would likely tear in near future-they are psychics there you know). So we had both repaired at the end of February. Poor little Lu. She’s doing great now though. She’s about 6 weeks out from surgery, she was walking on both legs the day after surgery. It was pretty pathetic for awhile there, but now it’s going to be tough to contain her again soon.

And if that wasn’t enough, Kimballs had been having some wrist issues. I guess she had fractured it a couple of years ago and didn’t know it and it was causing damage to the area over time and eventually a lot of discomfort. She had a surgery two weeks after Lucy to fix that little gem. They had to repair and move around some ruptured tendons/ligaments. She is in a splint up to her armpit or at least she’s still supposed to be. She takes a lot of breaks. LOL. This household was a mess…. well, except for Steve and Frank. They are fine. Boys rule, girls drool. Damn them.

Look alikes:

Derek Carr

Richie Tenenbaum

Cheers all!!!