Good health!

We got some good news from my oncologist today! For those of you who don't know my history, I had two surgeries last fall. The first one was female-related (a story in itself) and I thought everything was fine...but I ended up in the hospital two weeks later. During the second surgery, which was to remove some scar tissue they thought was blocking my GI track, the doctors discovered I also had "incidental appendicitis." Let me tell you how weird it is to come out of anesthesia to learn you've had something removed that you hadn't planned on - and this happened twice within 2-1/2 weeks last year!

Anyway, the biopsy of my appendix showed a super-tiny carcinoid tumor. My understanding is that carcinoids are neuroendocrine tumors that are normally found in the GI tract. It can turn into a syndrome, and it doesn't respond well to chemotherapy. As a result, the usual course of treatment is preventative, and if they find something, they will operate to remove the carcinoid surgically. Unfortunately, I do know of some people for whom it was not caught early enough and are dealing with a much tougher battle than mine.

The doctors believe that my case was caught extremely early, and, combined with the tumor being so small, means that they're not overly worried about a recurrence. However, I still go in for quarterly labwork and ocreotide scans, which are three-day long tests. They inject a small dose of a radioactive substance in you (fun, huh?) and you get to lie in a machine for an hour each day while they scan you.

The interesting thing is that they don't usually see this occur as a secondary cancer and are surprised that someone with my history of childhood cancer would have this issue as well. They call me "lucky," but I know that "incidental" issue was not "accidental," but rather part of God's protection.

So, the good news is that my scan and bloodwork was all clear. There were some slight abnormalities in another lab test, so they'll repeat that in a month. But nothing to worry about for now.

Thanks for everyone's prayers. We have so much to be thankful for.

-T