The “C” Word – 1 Year plus 40 days Waiting - - again

A few things to catch up on.  First, we saw our wonderful surgeon, Dr. Bastidas, in mid-August.  Though George spoke of a few concerns, Dr. Bastidas did not appear to be concerned.  The only thing he was concerned about was the fact that after this length of time George is still not having normal bowels and that he was having to go too frequently.  He said, “I left you with enough large intestine, I don’t know why you are having issues.”  As a result, he did add back in a medication (Lomotil) that George can take in addition to the Immodium.  So George’s regime is now to take 4 Immodium & Lomitil daily.  The results were almost immediate in the less frequency of bathroom trips during the day.  Not perfect, but better.

The past few weeks have been eventful in other ways.  We did take our scheduled vacation to see the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon, neither of which George had seen before.  I have seen them on a couple of occasions while growing up, the most recent of which occurred when I was 21.  That particular time was when my parents were moving me from Connecticut to San Jose.  We camped as we traversed the country and made stops at Arches, Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon, etc.  George always laughed when I told him my take on this trip as a 21-year old was this:  “Bryce = Red Rocks down, Zion = Grey and White Rocks up, Grand Canyon = More rocks, big whoop (not)”.  I must also say that the trip was taken in June, the first hot month of summer for those parts!  As an adult I can now the grandeur a bit more.

Needless to say, George was thoroughly impressed.  We saw the Grand Canyon in the morning and afternoon light.  We did not catch a sunset as it was monsoon season and every afternoon it rained (especially the second day we were there).  We did, however, see a couple of rainbows because of the rain.  That was pretty cool!  He took a ton of photographs!  Bryce was spectacular as well with a different kind of view than the Grand Canyon. 

On the way home we stopped in Las Vegas and stayed in a luxurious room at the MGM Grand.  Then we headed up to Roseville to spend a couple of days with the kids and grandkids.  We had a wonderful, relaxing vacation – long overdue for the two of us. 

During this trip we had a couple of long driving days.  George had built himself a portable potty (constructed from a 5 gallon paint bucket with a real toilet seat attached).  I had purchased a small pop up tent to sit in should the use of the potty become necessary.  Jokingly dubbed the “crap-o-let”, this invention never left the car!  George did confess later that there were a few times he was uncomfortable but did not let me know because he wanted me to enjoy the time away from home.  Such a guy!!  LOL!

Immediately upon returning home our lives were once again consumed by caring for George’s mom.  Her evening caregiver now gone, we were thrust into picking her up from daycare and taking care of her until bedtime.  This time around, however, George is going to fix dinner for us while I care for his mom.  (Otherwise our dinner would not be ready until 5:30-6 PM which is too late for us.)  This definitely helps me not feel so overwhelmed with having to take care of everyone! 

And now…. Here we are, waiting for results… again.  George’s 2^nd CT scan was yesterday.  That was the “easy” part.  Now we wait until our scheduled oncology appointment which is next Friday.  As expected, George’s anxiety level is slowly on the rise.  Convinced that, because there were some areas of differential diagnosis during the initial baseline scan in March, the cancer is back.  The differential diagnosis means that because of his history they cannot rule out that it might possibly be a recurrence, but it also might not be a recurrence.  And so….. We wait.  The end of the week cannot come soon enough so we can deal with whatever we are told.  We have requested prayers far and wide to ask for peace of mind, for NED (No Evidence of Disease), for strength.  Once again, we don’t know what God’s answer will be.  In some ways, I think we are preparing for the inevitable – for the return of the “C” word.  Knowing there are areas of “concern” we can’t help but think that one or more of those are the start of additional tumors.  We are comforted, if that is what it can be called, that PMP is a slow growing cancer so even if it has returned it could be years before we have to think about another surgery.  But even another surgery down the road is not exactly something that we would look forward to as this past round was extremely difficult. 

But…. We will deal with whatever is put in front of us.  We are a team.  Our family and friends and neighbors are all part of that team. 

For now, until Friday… we will wait…. And pray…