Next Steps

Though I'm still basking in having finished four months of chemo, there's still much to be done. Here's an outline of next steps;

• 10/5 - Consult with the surgeon in preparation for the ileostomy reversal, commonly called the 'takedown'.
• 10/7 - Testing of anastomosis. This basically verifies that I don't have any colon blockages or leaks as a result of the first surgery, which would impede the takedown. Once again, I'll be bare-assed on a table with a bunch of strangers. This from the chick who changes in a bathroom stall in the gym locker room and never peed in front of even her best girlfriends.
• 10/12 - PET/CT scan. Technically, they'll give me an IV of a tracer, a slightly radioactive glucose, wait an hour and then scan me. Any area of the body with abnormally high metabolic activity (cancer) would have a higher glucose intake, so the tracer will be highly attracted to those areas and would show up on that scan. But I know this house is clean!
• 10/14 - Review results of the scan with my oncologist.
• 10/14 (Evening) - Substantial intake of really good champagne.
• 10/25 - Takedown surgery, which will keep me in the hospital about three days and home on leave about four weeks. Even after less than six months with the ostomy, this will be a slow recovery as my colon remembers how it is supposed to work...I'm told it will likely be a year before I really feel 'normal'. Still, Mommy's 'boo-boo' will be no more.
• TBD - Port removal.
• February, 2011 to October, 2015 - For the first three years, I've have an annual CT scan, with blood work every three months. Years four and five I'll have blood work every six months, with an annual scan. And for the rest of my life I can look forward to colonoscopies every two years...

Despite the fact that there's some really rough stuff in the plan, I'm OK with it all. Everything up to this point was about killing the cancer inside me - everything from this point forward is intended to make me whole, help me recover and move on, and get back to just being me.

Finito!

I've been remiss in updating here, as Kane reminds me with relative frequency, and I do feel guilty about that. But, the time has not been wasted, rather filled with sweet events, so I can't be hard on myself. I could swear I posted something about lucky treatment number 7, which I did construct in my head, but apparently never put it to keyboard...

Treatments five and six were rough. My kick-over-the-speakers attitude was beginning to wan a bit. Sandwiched between six and seven however, Stephen and Katie came to visit. Getting to know Katie, who I gather is going to be around awhile, and seeing my brother in love, was a great distraction. The seventh treatment the following week was easier than five and six, I think because there was finally an end in sight. And with Mom in town that following weekend, recovery was easier on us all - there was a third person in the rotation for hide-and-seek, tricycle training and bath-time!

After that following week off treatment, we had a three day weekend in Napa for Jen and Mike's wedding. A day of touring wineries with friends via limo, a day off with Steve touring by bicycle, some really fabulous food, a candlelit wedding under the stars, lots of laughs and moments with great friends, the comfort of knowing Donovan was home with Yenny riding the train and eating ice cream each evening...I came back on a high and that carried right into the eighth and final post surgical treatment, which started our first day back.

Although it has been the hardest physically, it was the easiest mentally. Throughout those three days last week, no matter the nausea and that chemical taste, no matter how bad the burning in my hands and mouth, no matter a few more eyelashes - I truly believe I will never have to do this again and that made it easier to power through. And then there I was, after three and a half months of treatment, being unplugged Wednesday afternoon...rounds of hugs from all the nurses, cheers from the receptionists on my way out the door, a flood of relief and tears in the car home. It was actually hard to put into words how good it felt to be done. And then, on Thursday evening, my niece, Kasey Gabrielle Metz was born and Keith was quickly able to put it into words...she and I now share the first day of the rest of our lives.