Surgical Second Opinion

Today was a great day. That is two, count em, two days in a row where we have had great appointments at the hospital. Have I mentioned recently how much I love MD Anderson? It really is an amazing place and exactly where I am supposed to be.

So today I met with a surgical oncologist who specializes in GI cancers. His name is Dr. Gimbel and he is our guy. He answered all our questions, was super confident, and was very patient with us as we tried to understand all the details of this craziness. I have been praying to know what I should do and who I should see and I feel like my prayers have been answered all along the way. The surgeon is probably the most important decision that I need to make and I feel like I have made a good decision by going with Dr. Gimbel. I am so relieved that we can move forward now.

I asked him about integrated medicine and they have a doctor at MD Anderson that does exactly that! I have been trying to become more educated about nutrition and the body's natural healing powers in combination with traditional treatment. It is all about strengthening my immune system and doing what I can to reduce the possibility of a secondary cancer. I will be pairing both traditional and natural medicine in my fight against cancer and I'm grateful to have someone at the center who has access to all my current meds, scans and doctors that I'm already seeing - we can all work together for the best possible outcome. He will also help me manage the side effects from chemo and radiation.

I will also hopefully be seeing a nutritionist to help educate me on the best foods that I can eat at this time. I have always felt so perplexed by food and what is best to eat and what is good and what is bad - it seems like it is always changing. I am excited to become more educated and hopefully make some lifestyle changes that will help reduce the possibility for recurrence.

So here is the latest schedule (it seems like it is always kind of in flux)

- First day of treatment: Tuesday the 24th.
-6 weeks of chemo and radiation. I will get radiation every day, Monday-Friday and take my chemo pills on the days I get radiation (so no meds on the weekends.)
-4-8 week break to let my body recover and let the radiation continue to shrink the tumor
-Surgery (probably in mid-late September. My birthday is in September and I would really like to wait till after my bday if it's all the same to them. My bday is my favorite holiday of the year! I'd like to be bag free for it, haha!) I will have the tumor removed and possibly a hysterectomy.
-I will be in the hospital for a week or so recovering from surgery.
-6 weeks of post surgery recovery
-Another in-patient surgery to reattach everything (if I get the temporary bag and not the permanent one)
- A few days in the hospital making sure there are no leaks or problems with reattachment
-6 months of a more intense chemo to make sure we kill every single cancer cell in my body

I'm ready, I'm excited, I'm happy.