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My oncology consultation
2 years ago
General
[ General information ] ♞ [ Commission info ] ♞ [ Open slots and commission status ] ♞ [ About me ]Dear friends, followers, and supporters!
Today I had my first appointment with the oncologist. He was very nice and helpful, he explained everything in detail about my tumor and the treatments I'm going to get.
It's mostly good news with a bit of bad news.
The bad news is that the tumor was a grade 4 (out of 4), which means it's the fastest growing and has the highest chance of coming back. But from here it's good news. Within grade 4, it's a relatively tame one. It was a brain tissue tumor, meaning it wasn't coming from somewhere else, and this type of tumor does not spread to other organs. Also, there is a protein, and if it's mutated, then the cancer cells are less aggressive, and it is mutated for me. So overall, with the treatments I have good chances of it not coming back.
Treatment starts next Friday, and I'll get radio and chemo simultaneously. They made my radio mask today, just like in this video! Funnily enough, this popped up in my YouTube recommendations just yesterday.
The radio will not have any serious side effects, except for one: I'll have hair loss in the affected area. :( How much, they can't tell. But it will take 6 months after treatment for it to even start growing back... :( There will be 30 treatments over 6 weeks. Every day from Monday to Friday, then on weekends my body rests.
As for chemo, there is a pill that's developed especially for the type I have, and it's very effective. I'll have to take it daily. After the radio it's over I'll still have to take some but with breaks. Side effects are mild, but can include nausea and vomiting, which can be managed with medication. The one tricky part is that it can slow down the production of blood platelets. There is a 1% chance that my bone marrow doesn't handle it well and the production falls dangerously low, in which case the medicine needs to be stopped. They will do a blood test every week to monitor it. So this is not the standard chemo but a very specific targeted pill.
So all in all my chances of it never coming back are pretty good! I'm feeling positive about it all. But still, I can't help but feel nervous and anxious about the whole thing. I'm still just processing that I just had friggin brain cancer, that nearly killed me, and it still could even if the chance of that is very low. It feels so... unreal. It feels like it was all just a bad dream. I wish it was...
But I'll prevail. I'm a fighter and a survivor. I still have plenty of work to do in this life and I'm not allowing some stupid malfunctioning brain cells to stop me. I'll get through this all and come out stronger on the other side, mark my words!
I'll keep updating you all. Until then, stay safe and stay cool! :)
Today I had my first appointment with the oncologist. He was very nice and helpful, he explained everything in detail about my tumor and the treatments I'm going to get.
It's mostly good news with a bit of bad news.
The bad news is that the tumor was a grade 4 (out of 4), which means it's the fastest growing and has the highest chance of coming back. But from here it's good news. Within grade 4, it's a relatively tame one. It was a brain tissue tumor, meaning it wasn't coming from somewhere else, and this type of tumor does not spread to other organs. Also, there is a protein, and if it's mutated, then the cancer cells are less aggressive, and it is mutated for me. So overall, with the treatments I have good chances of it not coming back.
Treatment starts next Friday, and I'll get radio and chemo simultaneously. They made my radio mask today, just like in this video! Funnily enough, this popped up in my YouTube recommendations just yesterday.
The radio will not have any serious side effects, except for one: I'll have hair loss in the affected area. :( How much, they can't tell. But it will take 6 months after treatment for it to even start growing back... :( There will be 30 treatments over 6 weeks. Every day from Monday to Friday, then on weekends my body rests.
As for chemo, there is a pill that's developed especially for the type I have, and it's very effective. I'll have to take it daily. After the radio it's over I'll still have to take some but with breaks. Side effects are mild, but can include nausea and vomiting, which can be managed with medication. The one tricky part is that it can slow down the production of blood platelets. There is a 1% chance that my bone marrow doesn't handle it well and the production falls dangerously low, in which case the medicine needs to be stopped. They will do a blood test every week to monitor it. So this is not the standard chemo but a very specific targeted pill.
So all in all my chances of it never coming back are pretty good! I'm feeling positive about it all. But still, I can't help but feel nervous and anxious about the whole thing. I'm still just processing that I just had friggin brain cancer, that nearly killed me, and it still could even if the chance of that is very low. It feels so... unreal. It feels like it was all just a bad dream. I wish it was...
But I'll prevail. I'm a fighter and a survivor. I still have plenty of work to do in this life and I'm not allowing some stupid malfunctioning brain cells to stop me. I'll get through this all and come out stronger on the other side, mark my words!
I'll keep updating you all. Until then, stay safe and stay cool! :)
*hugs...
Vix
Still, I appreciate the encouraging comment. :) There will definitely be some hard moments, and I really just want this all to be behind me. But it is what it is, I'll deal with it.