I got a phone call from Dr Barone in San Diego.  He’s one of the appointments we have on Friday.  He had just finished reading through my entire case and wanted to call me to give his opinion.  He began by describing just how rare and aggressive this type of cancer is (always nice to hear that one more time…lol).  He couldn’t see anything further in my CT Scan and mentioned that while my pathology report had said that the tumor had broken through to the “mesoappendix” it hadn’t broken all the way through.  His oppinion was that I should have a hemicollectomy (which means they pull out a portion of my colon) so that we can ensure that the cancer has not moved to my lymph nodes.  He also suggested that there was a way they could check more thoroughly for tumors while I was on the table.  If this test came back positive… then it would make sense to move forward with a HIPEC surgery at that point.  If it came back negative… we close me up and move to a screening regimen that would include regular blood tests for tumor markers and an advanced MRI scan every six months.  This was the first time anyone who had any experience with Appendix Cancer had spoken to me about my CT Scan.  So I was happy to hear that he didn’t see anything that looked abnormal on there.  It’s certainly not an “all clear”… but it’s the best news I’ve had since this whole process began.   Monica also reached out to MD Anderson today, which is a world renowned cancer center in Texas.  They got my information in the system and will be contacting us for an appointment.  They will want to see me in person… so it looks like we get another impromptu trip out of town.  Still didn’t hear back from OHSU quite yet.  Monica called again and they did say that according to the computer… things were being requested and “stuff was happening”. So I still don’t know what they are thinking.

As I learn more about getting this website updated and organized, I’ll try to get my pathology posted for anyone who wants to take a look at the document.  It’s overwhelming… but for anyone who has been diagnosed with something like this… It’s really the most concrete piece of information you have to research off of.  And some of the terms (like HIPEC) that I mention in my post can be googled… but I’ll try and do a better job at describing them… lol… I’m new to all of this and still trying to figure out what is too much information.