My Liver Cancer Blog
my first blog, a way for me to process my experience of being diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma
about
I am a professor at a Canadian university. I’m married, have close relationships with my family, love my 2 dogs, love travel, and enjoy hiking (but day hikes only – not really into the hut-to-hut thing). I really hope I can get through this and do some major hikes again in the future. Thank god I also love reading novels (literary prize winners, but also espionage, detective, and sometimes Sci-fi). And thank god I live in an era of excellent tv. And thank god I love writing. There are many things I can still do that I love, even having cancer and being more home-bound than I would like to be.
If you’re new, I recommend starting with How I Found Out.
recent posts
Author: Helagrl
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Having cancer has meant that I spend more time at home than I usually do, and so I’ve overheard conversations between Jacky and Gordy that I normally wouldn’t. The topics of some of their conversations have really taken me by surprise. They have been more philosophical than I expected – very rooted in their own…
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Well, I was hoping for more dramatic results, but I’ll take what I can get. The tumor is now 7.4 x 4.6 cm. If I compare this with what I think of as our benchmark or baseline CT scan, which was done March 29 — after I finished chemo-immunotherapy, but before I started the zenocutuzumab…
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Oh, to be blissfully unaware of Canadian drug policy! Returning to that state of ignorance would be so nice. Or rather, never having felt the need to know about it would be so nice. But, ever since we embarked on the quest to obtain zenocutuzumab, it has felt important to have a better understanding of…
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In January, when I had finished combined chemo-immunotherapy and just started immunotherapy (durvalumab) alone, I woke up with a cluster of small, red, itchy bumps below my right elbow. Once or twice before I’ve gotten spider bites while sleeping, and so that was my go-to diagnosis, especially because it was on my arm, which is…
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Wicked Thoughts: On the way home from the 3rd Zeno infusion yesterday, I tested myself. If given the choice, are there still people in the world that I would give my cancer to if some little demon made the offer? Yup, totally. People I know? Yup, sorry to say, but totally. This made me and…
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That a well known oncologist, who earlier in the day had given a fascinating scientific presentation, taught us some Bollywood moves at the final dinner gives you a little bit of a feel for what this conference was like. (Link below is to a video of us doing our best to Sapphire, the song by…
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So, I’ve been very reluctant to share the precise information about how much Zeno costs. I think this reluctance comes from the upper middle class WASP in me: don’t talk about money, don’t talk about how much you paid for something, don’t talk about what you can and cannot afford. I’m embarrassed at how much…
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I received my first infusion of zenocutuzumab (Zeno) this week. It all went well — no side effects (knock on wood) except for some minor gastrointestinal upset — and this week I have felt fine. Better than fine, really — the closest I’ve felt to “normal” in a year. For example, yesterday I went for…
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So, I received the report about CT scan #4, which was done on March 29, and I think the take-home message is that the tumour size is stable and has not significantly changed since the previous scan, which was done Feb. 22. (In fact we didn’t even really need to do scan #4, but did…
My Liver Cancer Blog 