How to Turn into a Lizard Person

Well, I have been missing in action here, no? Just an update on what I have been up to. I need to get some more topics too, I hate just rambling about myself. Why read something you don't relate to? I promise, I'll be back to regularly scheduled programming some.

The Bad: The Last Few Weeks

These last three weeks have not been fun. I am on a new chemo pill (which I alone can handle, it is considered bio-hazardous for anyone else to even look at). When I started it, we thought that not getting infusions would give me some more freedom. Boy, was I wrong.

I have had a high fever for more than TWO WEEKS. I'm popping ibuprofen like M&M's. I am crazy fatigued. At random intervals during the day I get the most violent chills I have ever felt. It's like my bones are made of ice, so even 4 blankets on me does little.

Well, I'm off to bed.

On Saturday I woke up with red freckle like splotches on my face and chest, which looked almost exactly like it does below. I kept joking that I always wondering what it was like to inhabit an Irish lass's body and now I could look down at my boobs and know.

Before

However since then they have all grown in size and spread. Now I know that the lizard people / Illuminati shadow coalitions have conspired to turn me into a lizard person too.  

After

I spend all day in bed, or the couch. It has been hands down the hardest few weeks of this process. I am so fatigued I can't even do anything, and have lost 9 pounds over the course of 11 days. (I guess lizard people have to be lean.) I am hoping at this point that symptoms really even out soon cause this shit's crazy. 

The Good: A Second Opinion

In the beginning, when I was told I was incurable by doctors I was urged to get a second opinion. I knew well that anywhere I went I would receive standard first-line treatment so I decided to wait and see what results came from initial rounds of chemo. Well, I am past that point now, and more creative approaches are now needed. My doctor where I am is a good one but is no longer offering any curative options. So I have to find someone who can.

I have started the new patient process at MD Anderson in Houston, TX. They are ranked #1 in cancer care in the US and recognized globally. They specialize in colon cancer with liver metastases. Many people, like me, that were told they weren't candidates for surgery were told it was totally possible at MD Anderson - and cured where others gave them a death sentence. I am so very very hopeful. 

I am waiting for my appointment to be scheduled. Once they get your records, they review them. You are told that the visit is 3-5 days, during which you will see an entire team of doctors (oncologists, surgeon, radio oncologist) and have testing done. Hope to be there by months end. We will see...

Cross fingers and toes. :)