Still here, still kicking!

So that period being a hot mess? Turns out that was mets to the cervix. Biopsied a new "crust" and those stubborn little shitty cells are indeed colon cancer mets to my cervix.

I started FOLFIRI +Avastin. It is kicking my ass. Irinotecan is no joke. I don't talk to my family much about the side effects when I'm in the chair, but they're all familiar with the side effects once home. Irinotecan is nicknamed "I Run To The Can" and it is NOT wrong.

I'm hoping to finish up this set of chemo by the end of September and be released onto chemo maintenance. My old oncologist gave me full on chemo holidays, but this oncologist prefers I stay on a form of chemo to keep the nasties at bay. I'm in full agreement. So I'm hoping to move to Xeloda +Avastin, the Avastin being every three weeks or so at DFCI. (Dana Farber Cancer Institute). Xeloda will be pills twice a day for 14 days straight and then one week off.

Life goes on.

I'm not letting cancer keep me from anything as long as I can help it. And in fact, it is going to be a whirlwind fall for me. My boyfriend just visited me for the wknd (we're long distance; he lives in Quebec and I live in Massachusetts). This week is chemo, next week a friend is visiting, then chemo week, then I go up to Quebec, then chemo week, then to Maine with a friend, then chemo week, then back up to Maine with my boyfriend, then hopefully NOT chemo week (as in no more FOLFIRI), then back up to Quebec and Montreal to meet his family. And then it'll be Thanksgiving time! Geesh!

I joined this online forum known as Colontown (it is transitioning to a new name of Paltown, I believe). It is a tight, wonderful community that is a wealth of information. None of which currently applies to me, but it's good to have such information at my fingertips, even if sometimes I cannot make heads or tails of it.

The clinical trials listed do not apply to my tumor type, etc., but one day they will. And for now, I can read and learn about them and argue and self-advocate. It's truly the best possible thing I have discovered in social media regarding my cancer.

As the founder would say, TO LIFE!