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
Category: Uncategorized
-
the whole time I was writing my second book I worried about dying. I worried that somehow death would take me before I could finish. And then, once it was done and published, I stopped worrying. As if death comes only to prevent you from accomplishing the things you want to accomplish, but leaves you…
-
On Nov. 3 I had the second CT scan since starting chemo-immunotherapy, after 6 cycles. (The first scan was in August, after 2 1/2 cycles, and showed no decrease in the size of the main tumor, but one node of the tumor had shrunk by about 1/3. I don’t even really know what this means…
-
to watch the summer 2028 Olympics? Will I be alive to see what happens with the 2028 US election? Will I be alive to celebrate my niece’s high school graduation? Will I be alive when my stepdaughter buys her first house? Will I be alive to watch the next season of The Diplomat? I don’t…
-
We saw my oncologist yesterday. We see him every three weeks. My chemo-immunotherapy cycles are 3 weeks long – weeks 1 and 2 I receive treatment, week 3 is a break from treatment, but we see the oncologist after I get bloodwork done. So far these appointments have been primarily dedicated to my reporting any…
-
At our most recent meeting with my oncologist we learned that some results have come back regarding the genomic analysis of the biopsy material from my tumor. As I mentioned in an earlier post, a tumor’s growth is often driven by a specific mutation, and for some of the more common mutations, there are specific…
-
I’ve been meaning to write this post since July. In my very second post “How I found out,” I mentioned in the first sentence returning from Baku, Azerbaijan, and starting to experience gastritis symptoms shortly thereafter. It would be easy to read that sentence in a kind of breezy way — as if I come…
-
My red blood cell count went into the shitter this week, and all I want to do is nap. Up until now I was luxuriating in a mostly chemo-side-effect-free treatment experience. But now I am tired, tired, tired. I can only hope that if the chemo is killing my red blood cells, it is also…
-
I know that sounds bizarre. I think most people think of chemo as this horrible experience that causes nausea, vomiting, hair loss, and exhaustion. I know I thought of it that way. And for many people it is a wretched experience. But I’m one of the lucky ones (so far, knock on wood) who has…
-
”Honey, can I tell you something?” “Yes, of course.” “Honey, chemo has changed my butt.” A woman walked past us on the hospital parking garage stairs going in the other direction. She overheard me and said, “It changes a lot more than that. It changes everything.” I thought to myself, “Only here at the cancer…
-
That is, the first scan since starting chemo/immunotherapy. It showed no decrease in size for the main tumor in my liver – still 10.4 cm. But a smaller tumor decreased by almost 1/3, from 3.2 cm to 2.4 cm. And no spread to anywhere else in chest, pelvis, or abdomen. That last bit is excellent…
My Liver Cancer Blog 