4.28.25
Tomorrow is the big day! I have mix of emotions- excitement, nervousness, fear, relief. I am so ready to get over this major hurdle but after going trough 2 surgeries (colon and port placement) in the last 4ish months and the process being so fresh in my mind- it stirs up a lot of feelings.

Here is the technical verbiage for the surgery plan-
Cholecystectomy, Insertion of Liver Pump (prototype in the photo above), Hepatectomy, resection liver; partial lobectomy, Ablation- open- of 1 or more liver tumors- radiofrequency, Ultrasonic guidance- intraoperative. They estimate the surgery to take about 5 hours. Basically they will remove my gallbladder (because the chemo they are sending to my liver will make it hard), they will put the pump on the left side connecting it to a branch in the artery, they will cut part of my liver and ablade another part of my liver.

I was anticipating to have to do another round of chemo (round 8) before the surgery but at my last appointment with Dr. Kasi he said they would be holding off until after surgery and it was such a big relief. I was able to enjoy most of the month of April without feeling crummy. And I got to have some fun one on one time with each of the girls while they were off school for spring break. We went to the mall, the park, the girls rode scooters, and we had the most relaxing Easter. 

My understanding for after surgery is that they will put a "cousin" of the 5FU Chemo in the pump for 3-4 rounds. Every 18 days they will fill the pump alternating between chemo and saline in order to keep the pump continuously full. Then they will drop the Oxaliplatin and give the irinotecan through the port (every 2 weeks for 5 rounds). Once I am 6 weeks out from surgery they will start the Avastin (immunotherapy) back up for the remainder of the rounds. 

During my break I was also able to check out Music Therapy. I am really looking forward to incorporating it into my healing and think it will be a fun experience. I also got to get a hair cut in the salon. I thought that the break from chemo would mean a break from my hair shedding but it has picked up.  

Up next on my list of things to try at City of Hope is acupuncture, spiritual care, massage therapy, and they just started a young adults support group that I am looking forward to checking out. I love that City of Hope offers so many additional ways to get support through this journey. It truly helps take away some of the stress of this whole process. 

3.31.25 Walking into treatment 7 was mentally challenging for me. Having a cold during treatment 6 really made the week hard and walking into #7 knowing how crummy I felt the last round brought up a lot of anxiety. Before they even started the infusion my eyes filled up with tears. My birthday was also the day after the infusion and knowing that I would feel crummy on my birthday made me frustrated and bummed out. Miraculously after starting the infusion a patient I had met at the beginning of this journey happened to be finishing up her infusion and popped by. We caught up a little and cried a little and it was exactly what I needed. It instantly boosted my mood. This treatment they held the avastin again so my apt was not as long and I  went home with my 5FU pump. I felt pretty nauseous most of the treatment and made it through but when I got home I ended up throwing up. 

This round I made sure to stay up on drinking my protein powder and made sure to eat soup even when it was hard. I feel like the round was not nearly as bad as the round before. I felt a lot less "foggy" and seemed to bounce back a couple days sooner than the last. I did notice my hair is shedding a lot more, I am much more sensitive to the cold, and my forearms/ calfs feel like they are weaker. 

Thankfully I was able to celebrate my birthday with my girlfriends a couple days before the treatment. Then on my birthday my parents watched the kiddos while Mike and I went to the movie theater to see Snow White. I typically wouldn't leave the house day 2 of Chemo but I was determined to do something and it was the perfect way to get my mind off everything and  celebrate. 

Then on Friday 4.4.25 Mike and I drove out to Duarte to meet with the liver surgeon. I answered some pre surgery questions, did and EKG and then met with Dr. Melstrom. She went back over her surgery plan (ablade any tumors she can see/ evidence of where anything was and insert a HIA pump). She answered a bunch of our questions and said they wont be doing an 8th infusion before the surgery. Surgery is scheduled for April 29th.