It's Chemo Time

I realize that I’ve been out of communication for quite some time. Quite frankly, I’ve been overwhelmed with the amount of work that I have in front of me. Whereas the last time I was diagnosed, I pushed through the chemo, took some herbal supplements, saw an acupuncturist and then declared victory and went back to my regular life – this time I cannot. It’s been a hell of a wake up call. I thought that I had heard the message the last time – I prioritized my kids and vowed not to take things at work so seriously. But those weren’t the only messages that I was supposed to receive. There were deeper, more profound lessons to be learned.

So – over the past few weeks I have embarked on my new journey of self discovery. I am now voraciously reading about healing, I’m meeting with both a healer (who also treats the Dalai Lama) and my phenomenal acupuncturist, I changed my diet to try to starve the cancer and I’ve started going to yoga class (and plan to add Qi Gong). Amazingly enough, my next door neighbor is a reiki healer (that’s the Bay Area for you!) and is serving as a spiritual guide for me as I explore this whole new world of mind-body connectivity.

On the western medical front, I met with Dr. Fisher a week ago to walk through what he wants to do. He spent 1.5 hours explaining the specialized program that he came up with. He told me that he’s throwing out the rule book for me. That is both scary and exciting. The plan is the following: utilizing the port in my abdomen, he plans to put in a liter of chemo and a liter of saline for 3 days in a row. During the chemo treatment, they will plan to roll me from side to side to slosh it around, so that it gets into every nook and cranny. I will then wait 2-3 weeks and then we’ll do it again. He plans to do this 4 times over the course of 2-3 months.

While this is a normal course of treatment for people with ovarian cancer, delivering chemo directly into the abdomen is very unusual for colon cancer (at least in the West – I have since learned that this is fairly common protocol in China). Dr. Fisher said that he believes that if there are cancer cells floating around that most likely they would be in my abdomen and with the full concentration of chemo, that I will have the best possibility of killing any more rogue cells. He explained that if he administered the chemo through my veins (like they did the last time), that it would be diluted by the time that it reached my belly, lowering the toxicity to the cancer cells.

This past week, my sister and I traveled down to UCSD to meet with Dr. Tony Reid, also a renowned colon cancer oncologist, to get a second opinion on my course of treatment. He agreed with the protocol that Dr. Fisher is recommending and felt that it would give me the greatest chance of success. I now feel confident moving forward with my unorthodox treatment, since two of the greatest minds in colorectal oncology have agreed on the best course of action.

So what are the side effects? My stomach will probably be distended and I’ll be fatigued. They are not expecting any hair loss, excessive nausea or neuropathy. They believe that it will be much easier on me overall than last time, since they won’t be running the poison through my entire system.

Dr. Fisher is also considering adding another drug that would be administered intravenously. However, for the time being, we’re going to proceed with the IP chemo (that’s what they’re calling this type of delivery of chemo) and see how my body handles it and then determine if it makes sense to add another.

So, I will be heading down to Stanford this Tuesday to begin the first of three days of chemo. At this point, they’re not planning on admitting me to the hospital – I’ll just come home each day. Please send all of your wonderful prayers and positive thoughts to me this week as I begin the process of ridding my body once and for all of cancer.