Hello Everyone,
I know it has been a little longer than I would have liked since my last post, but I’m finding out that it takes a lot of time to beat cancer!

I guess I am now considered a pro at chemo. I have a routine down and my side effects has stayed about the same. On my last treatment my oncologist backed down the dosage of oxaliplatin due to the neuropathy in my hands lasting longer than it should of. Hopefully we can maintain that going forward. The three day treatment plan takes a lot of time and effort but based on my cancer tumor markers that were checked before my histotripsy, it seems to be working! My numbers at that point were reduced by 50%, which is encouraging! I will have treatment 5 on Monday February 17th and my last cycle in this round will be on March 3rd. I will have a scan on March 7th to see how the progress is coming but I do already have my next 6 treatments scheduled. The goal is to continue to see shrinkage in my tumors and to develop a plan from there. Nothing is set in stone and as always my goal is to heal with no evidence of disease. We are taking it one day at a time and I am very grateful to have all the love and support to get me thru. I have also been put on notice by my driver (AKA Dave). When taking me to chemo, I am really close to having to sit in the back seat behind him since he is insisting that he does not need my driving instructions anymore! 😉 To be continued…..

Now we move on to what you all have been waiting for…..how did that histotripsy go?

It went as well as I could have hoped for! Going into this we had no idea how many blasts that they would be able to make in my tumor. Worst case scenario we would get one 3cm hole but once he started the process, it would be possible to do more. I knew I would be under anesthesia any where from 30 min to 3 hours depending on how fast the tumor grinding went. Three hours later the doctor called Dave to let him know that they were able to go thru my ribs on on the backside of my chest and make 5 holes. This procedure was never intended to totally get rid of my liver tumor we knew going into this that it was too large and there was no chance of if being totally removed. The goal is that my body will create its own immunotherapy and fight the cancer that is now grinded up and moving thru my body. Hopefully it recognizes it as a foreign object and rids it not only in my liver but in my lungs.

Now we pray and wait, no plan or direction to take at this point. I will get a scan of my liver on February 20th and have a follow up with the surgeon on the 25th. He was optimistic on my scan that I had the day after the procedure but this is not something that he could tell at that point. It is possible that if I am responding that he could go in again and do another round. It is non invasive and I was in minimal pain, I came home that day and the biggest thing was recovering from the anesthesia.

I will end this post that my intention will be to not wait as long to update you all, I had a bit of writers block and to be honest sometimes my brain is not firing on all cylinders, chemo brain is a major side effect for me. I am still tying to work part time for now and keep as normal of a routine as I can on my non treatment weeks. Thanks for praying, sending positive thoughts and being in my corner!

Do something for yourself today, walking or any form of exercise for 30 minutes a day a day reduces your chance of demise greatly!

Peace, love and gratitude, Michelle