So good news/bad new. The bad news is that my cancer came back in February of this year 2024.
But, the good news is that I can have surgery to remove it. The surgery will be Sept 26, so a week away. It will be in San Francisco as UCSF. I was treated there three years ago when this all started and feel really good about the care I will get there.
We are currently in Panama but Jeff and I will fly to San Fran next week. I’ll be in the hospital for a few days and then in an Air BnB to recover. My sister Laura lives there and my parents and my other sister Jenny will come up. And of course Jeff will be with me.
Here is the other good news. I know this doesn’t sound like good news, but in the cancer world it it is.
I was cancer free for one year and nine months. That means (according to the doctors) the first chemo worked. This still sounds weird to me. If it worked why did it coome back? But anything over six months is considered working.
I had more chemo this last year and it also worked. Again how did it work if the tumor is still there? The chemo did shrunk it, so that is good news.
They can do surgery. When I was rediagnosed in February, the tumor was too close to the ureter (tube connecting the kidney to the bladder). But, thanks to chemo it can be safely removed now.
Chemo wasn’t that bad. I decided not to blog about it this time because it was pretty similar to last time and frankly, I was lazy. But it was about the same, maybe even a little easier this time.
After surgery I can go on a maitenance drug that should keep it away. The drug Avastin is something they can only give you if you reoccur which is why I didn’t get it the first time. But, it’s supposed to help keep it from coming back. I have been on it waiting for this surgery. It’s not bad, I don’t have any side effects.
Sven is still my support sloth so he will be there to help with recovery.
I know all of you reading this will be there virually with me cheering me on.
It’s been one year since I had the hysterectomy. Not only was the surgery where they found cancer, it was also where they removed it which means I’m a year cancer free!! I still have a year of close monitoring to make sure it’s gone forever, but I’m feeling good and getting back to normal.
As I took this picture, Sven noticed I was wearing my sloth tank top and socks. He said he should be the sloth with the most pictures on this blog and asked me to post his vacation photos from our trip to Colombia.
Sven had a great vacation but is happy to be back in Panama.
We’ve spent the last two weeks settling back into normal life. It feels great to not be thinking about Wasabi or upcoming medical stuff.
My hair is back to its normal color thanks to Jeff’s hair coloring expertise. I’ve also learned to embrace my waves vs fighting them thanks to curl coaching from my friend Julie.
I finally wore one of my wigs when Rolf and Samuel hosted a murder mystery party.
This is the last week at my job and then we take off for a two week vacation in Colombia.
Jeff and I took advantage of the day off yesterday to go to Taboga Island.
It’s a small island only a 30 minute boat ride from Panama City
There is a beach but it was rainy so we saw it but didn’t hang out there. Instead we walked around town and I took a lot of photos of doors. There were a ton of chickens as well which I also took photos of.
Jeff tried to interview these chickens on why they were crossing the road.
Lunch was a pork chop and fried plantains. In an effort to have something American for the 4th of July, we had light beer.
After lunch we went to the church of San Pedro which is the second oldest church in the America Pacific or possibly the western hemisphere, or continent. Google has varying accounts of what exactly its the 2nd oldest of. Just know it was old.
On the boat ride back we watched these birds. They flew right in front of the boat and seemed to be surfing on the wind.
As we watched we saw something leave the birds butt. Before we could register what it was we were splattered with bird poo.
Didn’t catch a photo of that.
Luckily we had kleenex with us and were in our way back home. Once home we washed our clothes…twice and took very long showers.
I hope everyone has a good 4th of July. The sad news about the parade shooting made the news out here. We were relieved to know our friends there were all safe.