Laura and I met with Dr. Noonan (Oncologist) this morning.
I've been off for two weeks, so am feeling better - certainly not normal and still a little tired, but improving every day.
The CT scan I had last week showed no evidence of disease outside the bladder - which doesn't mean a whole lot because it's microscopic disease we're worried about. The chemo to date has not shrunk the bladder tumour(s), but it isn't supposed to. It is supposed to hunt down and destroy any cancer cells it finds in my entire body. Except my left foot.
So all signs point to finishing off this chemotherapy round with sessions seven and eight. Starting this Friday (cisplatin and gemcitabine) and next Friday (gemcitabine). After that, she calls Dr. Wong (my Urologist) and she gives him the go ahead to schedule surgery.
I'm on track to finish all the chemo on December 22, so surgery ideally would be the end of February or beginning of March. I talked with Dr. Wong last week and confirmed that his calendar is open on those dates, so scheduling shouldn't be an issue.
When I talked with Dr. Wong he said that "all options are still on the table", although "some are not optimal". This held a glimmer of tri-modal therapy (bladder preservation), but Dr. Noonan pretty much put the stink eye on that option this morning. We're too far down the path of chemotherapy, and TMT isn't optimal for me for a number of reasons (multi-focal tumour, location of tumour near a ureter, bent ureter).
So back to the "I quit" theme at the beginning. Unless something extraordinary happens, I won't see Dr. Noonan again. She is done.
Now I look forward to be waited on hand and foot over the Christmas break.
Party on Garth.
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