And Round Two goes to....

Thursday April 4.  A big day.  A day that I have been thinking about for the weeks (if not months) since the appointments were scheduled.  A day that I have been not only just thinking about but worrying about...agonizing waiting.  You see April 4 is the day that I met with both my Surgeon, Dr. Hart, and my Oncologist, Dr. Lingas, to go over the results of my one-year surveillance tests - colonoscopy, CEA blood test, and CT scan.  

If you remember from previous posts, the gastro who had both originally found the tumour last March and performed the one-year post diagnosis colonoscopy had found two polyps a few weeks ago.  Sure, he suggested that they appeared to be benign and that the rest of my colon looked good but I was still worried.  But even more than the colonoscopy, the CT scan was worrying the sh#$ out of me (trust me - no pun intended).  Remember back in September the CT scan was monitoring lesions in my lungs and a spot on my liver.  Back then the words "no convincing evidence of metastasis" caused a sigh of relief then...but it's always a temporary relief.  The fact that they found spots of concern in my lungs and on my liver in March that they were monitoring in September was a source of worry.  I didn't know I had these lesions that they are surveilling.

I don't know if I will ever...even months, years, decades from now...stop worrying.  I would imagine that worry is now on a continuum for me...some days more intense...some days perhaps not...but always somewhere in the subconscious there.  Stage IIIB - invasion of the tumour beyond the colon walls into the regional lymph nodes.  How can I not worry?!  Sure the polyps might look benign...but I need to know conclusively, definitively, that they are benign, that they are non-cancerous, that they are nothing for me to add to my list of things to worry about where my cancer is concerned. 

And the good news...no great news is that I got the ALL CLEAR from both doctors.  

I) CEA levels normal

II) polyps removed last month were benign - hyperplastic polyps that would not develop into cancer

iii) CT scan showed lesions in lungs and liver are unchanged.   As it turns out this is actually better news that if they had shown that these lesions had decreased in size.  Why? This would suggest that they were more than simply benign lesions and that they had reacted to the chemotherapy...not good.

iv) Dr. Hart supports Dr. Springer's suggestion that I need not be scoped again for two years.

So the reality of this news sunk into Victoria and I later in the day on Thursday.  If you think about it, I don't think that the news could have been any more positive than it was.

Next surveillance is CEA in 3 months, CT in 6 months.

But for now....it's time to relax a bit and LIVE A LITTLE!!!  Or as one of my dear friends suggested  LIVE A LOT!!!

So at the end of Round Two the judges scorecard reads Brown 2 / Colon Cancer 0.  I am sitting in my corner with the towel wrapped around my neck.  My coaching staff is wiping the sweat off my brow and I am spitting vigorously into a bucket - after all, kicking the crap out of colon cancer is hard work. 

Insert soundtrack to Rocky here.