The Waiting
When I received the diagnosis of my sarcoma, in my mind I thought "OK, now I know I have cancer and next week they will go in and take it out, and that's that!" Wow, was I wrong!! First off we see a medical oncologist, Dr. Shahidi, at Roger Marris cancer center. Then he orders some labwork, a CT scan and MRI, and a referral to the University of Minnesota medical center for an orthopedic oncologist, and a referral for a radiation oncologist.
My appointment with Dr. Shahidi was on March 30, so we have the labwork that day and the CT scan and MRI are scheduled in Jamestown for April 3. The CT scan was to check to see if it had metastasized to any other areas in my body, mainly the chest and liver. But it came back good! Yeah!! (At that time I thought I got to get out of having chemotherapy). They couldn't do the MRI that day because the machine was down so I rescheduled in Fargo because on Tuesday I already had an appointment with Dr. Foster, radiation oncologist.
When Dr. Shahidi called me on Friday with the results of the CT scan, he asked if I had heard from the University of Minnesota yet and when I told him I hadn't, he said he was going to check on that right away and about 15 minutes later I had a call that I had an appointment of the U of M for Tuesday which I later rescheduled for Friday, April 10 since I had Tuesday appts. already.
After my appointment with Dr. Foster, radiation oncologist, he sounded like he would like to start radiation before surgery. Five weeks of radiation, five days a week (M-F). He said he would set up the appointment for a scan and "tatooing" on Tues. the 14th but if Dr. Clohisy decided something different I should call and cancel the appt. So in my mind I'm all primed for radiation and then Friday came.
After looking at my scan and MRI, Dr. C. said he would start with chemotherapy because in his 20 years of experience, even though the scan didn't show metastasis that doesn't mean that there are not cancer cells in other parts of your body just waiting to rear their ugly heads. So by treating the whole body with chemotherapy you are cutting you chances of having metastasis later. OK, this makes sense. So now we have an appointment on the 14th with Dr. Skubitz a medical oncologist that has 20 years experience treating sarcomas with chemotherapy. So I feel I am in good hands.
It sounds like it will be one treatment a month for 4 months and I'll be able to have them in Fargo, so no more driving to Minneapolis for a while I hope.
So the journey continues...
My appointment with Dr. Shahidi was on March 30, so we have the labwork that day and the CT scan and MRI are scheduled in Jamestown for April 3. The CT scan was to check to see if it had metastasized to any other areas in my body, mainly the chest and liver. But it came back good! Yeah!! (At that time I thought I got to get out of having chemotherapy). They couldn't do the MRI that day because the machine was down so I rescheduled in Fargo because on Tuesday I already had an appointment with Dr. Foster, radiation oncologist.
When Dr. Shahidi called me on Friday with the results of the CT scan, he asked if I had heard from the University of Minnesota yet and when I told him I hadn't, he said he was going to check on that right away and about 15 minutes later I had a call that I had an appointment of the U of M for Tuesday which I later rescheduled for Friday, April 10 since I had Tuesday appts. already.
After my appointment with Dr. Foster, radiation oncologist, he sounded like he would like to start radiation before surgery. Five weeks of radiation, five days a week (M-F). He said he would set up the appointment for a scan and "tatooing" on Tues. the 14th but if Dr. Clohisy decided something different I should call and cancel the appt. So in my mind I'm all primed for radiation and then Friday came.
After looking at my scan and MRI, Dr. C. said he would start with chemotherapy because in his 20 years of experience, even though the scan didn't show metastasis that doesn't mean that there are not cancer cells in other parts of your body just waiting to rear their ugly heads. So by treating the whole body with chemotherapy you are cutting you chances of having metastasis later. OK, this makes sense. So now we have an appointment on the 14th with Dr. Skubitz a medical oncologist that has 20 years experience treating sarcomas with chemotherapy. So I feel I am in good hands.
It sounds like it will be one treatment a month for 4 months and I'll be able to have them in Fargo, so no more driving to Minneapolis for a while I hope.
So the journey continues...
posted by Terri @ 3:19 PM
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