First and foremost, I'm doing pretty well. I've gained about 8-9 lbs and look healthy. I'll get a pic up on one of the sites one of these days. I feel pretty well, too, although I'm having a hard time kicking a urinary tract infection. (They warned me that it would take me longer to kick things than a regular person. I guess that makes me irregular. ) :) Yeah, I know. Big news flash.
Now, on to the drama, which takes breaks but never seems to go away. I was grateful that John was with me today because we got some news that was good/bad/lucky/? at the same time. We received some pathology reports that showed there was cancer (stage 1) in three of the adenomas. This is the BAD news. I was told that their protocol is not to transplant someone who has more than 2 areas with cancer, so that makes me extremely LUCKY. That is not to say they wouldn't have moved forward with the transplant; rather, they would have tried to treat me for the cancer before transplanting me. The GOOD news is that the cancer has not metastasized (meaning, that it has not spread) to other organs. They are now going to have a doctor powwow consisting of radiologists, oncologists, and surgeons to determine whether I need to do some form of chemotherapy. This is the "?" part. They are looking into whether the cancerous samples came from the large (5cm>) adenomas or not. If so, they will likely put me on chemo; if one or more came from a small one, they might. My Xmas wish list might have to be a wig this year. I'm already losing hair from my anti-rejection drugs.
So the other outcome from this is that I'm now, once again, a medical guinea pig. Because they would not have normally transplanted me, they are now quite interested in watching my case. So the other GOOD news is that if all ultimately goes well (and there's no reason to think that it won't) I could actually be the case that paves the way for others who are similarly situated who wouldn't have been considered for transplant prior to cancer treatment. I'm really jazzed about that part. I would love to think that all of this could benefit others and that they could avoid unnecessary treatments.
The other BAD news (which isn't really all THAT bad) is that I will now have to have abdominal MRIs every 3 months and lung scans every 6 months. I HATE the MRIs because:
1. They take around 45 minutes.
2. Your arms are pinned to your sides in a "cage."
3. You are asked to lie still and hold your breath for anywhere from 10-30 seconds over and over again, so it's not like you can just lie there listening to the music trying to tune it all out.
Oh well...you gotta do what you've gotta do, right?
So anyway, that's what's going on. I didn't mean to make this so long, but I wanted to convey all the relevant info. I'll keep you posted, but for now, I'm not scheduled to go back 'til March 31.
