Spleen is out & surgeon finds no further cancer!

Eve's surgery went well! They were able to remove her spleen through laparoscopy, as planned. No further cancer was found! She is resting now at Stanford hospital and plans to go home tomorrow. She's still convinced she's taping this Prop. 29 commercial on Monday!

Celebrating the End of Colon Cancer Awareness Month

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Colon Cancer Awareness Month. It’s almost time to take down the blue streamers and put away the party horns and hats until next year. I don’t know how you’ve celebrated, but I’ve decided to end Colon Cancer Awareness Month by getting rid of my colon cancer (although I will ask Stanford if they have some blue scrubs for me to help celebrate this special month).

As you are all aware, Friday is the big day. This week I’ve been preparing myself to lose one of the last expendable organs in my body and to steel myself for whatever news is presented to me following the surgery. My goal is to hear that they didn’t see any additional cancer, it was all in my spleen and my spleen was removed laparoscopically. I am asking that all of you send me similar intentions and prayers on Friday morning at 7:15 am when my surgery commences. The surgery should take approximately 3 hours and provided all goes as planned, I should be out of the hospital on Saturday or Sunday.

It is important that things go smoothly, since I am scheduled to shoot a commercial for the California Cancer Research Act (CCRA/Prop 29) on Monday! I am so honored to be a part of the effort. Provided that I’m out of the hospital and that I am not completely drugged up, the girls and I will be filming a spot to promote this important proposition. You may have seen that the tobacco companies are stepping up their game in opposition to Prop 29. Although we are on the side of the angels, we’ll be up against $50-$100 million in tobacco money that will be funding the opposition. If you’ve been putting off contributing to my online fundraiser for the CCRA, I can think of no better way to end Colon Cancer Awareness Month (except, of course, eradicating colon cancer from your body)!

I am so grateful to all of you for being by my side on this very long and arduous journey. You have inspired me, made me laugh and given me strength. This surgery will be my tenth (my sixth stomach surgery) in just over 4 years. I just pray that it will be my last. But, regardless of what is ahead, just knowing that you all are out there cheering me on, means more to me than I can ever express.

A Mixed Bag

Last Monday, Pat and I traveled down to Stanford to get the results from Dr. Fisher. In a nutshell, the cancer is growing as we suspected. The good news is that the only place that they could see cancer growth was in my spleen. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t any other cancer growth, since the CT scan only picks up spots that are greater than 6 mm in size.

When Dr. Fisher told us this news, I was jumping with joy. In fact, I ran over and hugged him. He was very perplexed with my reaction. I guess most people aren’t thrilled when they hear that cancer is growing in their body. When he asked me why I was so happy, I told him that I had prepared my self for a much worse discussion. Heck – a spleen can be taken out and I already knew I had cancer in my spleen!

George then brought in the surgeon to walk through their joint recommendation. They want to take it out. They were ok with leaving my spleen in when the cancer wasn’t growing but now that it is growing, they want it out. George said that he wasn’t surprised that my numbers went up and that the cancer was growing, he was just hoping that it wouldn’t have happened so soon.

I am scheduled to have a splenectomy on March 30 at Stanford. There are 3 possible outcomes on that day (there are probably a lot more, but these are the ones that I’m aware of):

1. The Preferred Result – the surgeon takes a laparoscopic look around, doesn’t see any more cancer, doesn’t see a lot of scar tissue and removes the spleen laparoscopically. I leave the hospital in 1 day and after healing, return to my current chemo regimen of Avastin and Xeloda.

2. Next Best Result – the surgeon takes a laparoscopic look around, doesn’t see any more cancer but sees too much scar tissue to remove the spleen laparoscopically so he is forced to open me up and take out the spleen. I will then have a 3 – 4 day hospital stay. After healing, I’d return to my current chemo regimen of Avastin and Xeloda.

3. Least Preferred Result – the surgeon takes a laparoscopic look around and sees a significant amount of cancer that he can’t remove. He would then leave my spleen in my body and sew me back up. After healing, I would then go on a very aggressive chemo regimen to try to shrink the tumors.

So – it looks like I’ll be losing yet another expendable organ. I will have to get immunizations for meningitis, pneumonia and the flu, since apparently, the spleen is important to protect the body against these ailments. But, otherwise, I’ve been told that I should see very little impact on my life. Many, many people live without a spleen.

Over the next 3 weeks, I will be focusing on prepping myself for surgery. Although I am not thrilled that I’ll be heading into my 6^th stomach surgery in just over 4 years, I am relieved that we have a plan of action to get rid of my cancer.

But now it’s time to take my chemo and get to bed….

Awareness

Over the past several years, many people have asked me how aware the girls are of what’s going on. Have we told them I have cancer? Have we told them how serious this disease is?

Since the very beginning we have been very open with the girls about the fact that I have cancer. Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t have a very good poker face. And – it’s pretty difficult to hide things when you’re having constant surgeries, rounds of chemo and people are coming over to visit regularly.

But, we have never talked about the possibility that I won’t be around for the long haul. Of course, I can’t control what the girls hear outside of the home, so I have often wondered what they have heard and what they think.

Which brings me to last week. When I was told by my San Francisco oncologist about the jump in my numbers, I was distraught. The girls witnessed my pain and sorrow about hearing the news. I knew that I should probably have hidden my distress, but I was just too caught up in my sadness to be thinking clearly.

Later that night, when I was snuggled up close to Ariel putting her to bed, she looked at me and simply said, “Mom, if you are in spirit when I have kids, will you come back through my child? I want to be with you always.”

This took the wind out of me. What a profound concept for an 8-year old little girl. I promised her that I would, but that I was planning to be with her in person when she had her children.

I guess that they do know what it is I’m up against.

Tomorrow morning, Pat and I will be meeting with Dr. Fisher to talk about the results from my scan and to determine next steps. All I know, is that I’ll keep fighting to meet my grandchildren.