Hi Everyone,
There’s been so much activity in all aspects of my world these days with a new nephew, the kids out of school for the summer and various treatment options floating around. I feel a little off balance and I’m not sure if it’s excitement or fear, probably a combination of both. I went to Houston last Tuesday to meet with a surgeon at Baylor, Dr. Curley, whom my MD Anderson doctor recommended. My friend Ellen Halper met me there and took copious notes and asked great questions, thank you Ellen for getting a sitter so you could be with me!What amazing friends I have.
The gist of the visit was that Dr. Curley does think I am a candidate for surgery and is ready to move ahead whenever I am. Wow. It would be a big surgery, total removal of the right lobe of the liver and ablation to the left to remove all liver tumors as well as removal of the cancerous lymph nodes in the abdomen. This is a lot to consider of course. This is however what I have been hoping for. I will seek the opinion of a few other surgeons who are liver specialists like Dr. Curley in order to get a clearer picture of this option. In the meantime I am in the process of applying to immunotherapy clinical trials led by Dr. Rosenberg in Maryland and it will be a few weeks before I know if there is anything worth considering on that front. My guess is that since I am not failing standard treatment (chemo) and I am not having side effects of standard treatment that warrant its discontinuation, I will not qualify at this time for any trials.
I will continue with chemo as I have been for the past almost 6 months (!) and gather information about options as I go. I feel so fortunate that I am in this position of considering options. I continue to feel well and sometimes really feel like I don’t have cancer at all.
My spirit is soaring and that is in no small part to all of you. I have not written nearly enough about the cheers that take place each time I get chemo. What have I done to deserve all the love that is wrapped in every single cheer effort? Thank you to every person that has volunteered to be a cheerleader as well as each of you that has contributed to the cheers. I know you all have busy lives that stretch you so it is all the more meaningful that you have taken time to reflect on a theme and share a part of you with me. I don’t rightly know how to express how it fills my soul. This past week my friend Wendy Williams chose the most awesome theme “Hilary Moments”, I loved this Wendy – thank you!! I sat and read as friends recounted moments we’ve shared that were meaningful to them or things about me they valued. What an amazing gift for me. I smiled through tears at the sweetness of those memories and compliments. It made me want to write back to each of you and share right back! I get to sit with friends and talk each time I get infused, and you all know how much I love to talk! In addition to Wendy sitting with me on Friday, my friend Susan Schotz who was in town from Chicago and used to be our neighbor our first year in Austin came to sit too. Thank you Susan for taking time out of your crammed week here in Austin to be with me! As if that wasn’t enough company my friend Martin who is valiantly waging his own war on pancreatic cancer was at TX Oncology at the same time as I was and he came to sit with me too. I call him the gentle giant (in my head that is) and he has been such a wonderful support for me since the early days of my diagnosis. I look forward to infusion days and the friends I get to share time with and the surprises I get each time from all you who make my life so rich. These cheers are all gifts that I go back and look at, read, listen to and cherish. Thank you for being creative, for carving out time to think and be still, and for giving a part of you to me. Everyone should get to have this experience, minus the cancer and the chemo because it is truly amazing. I guess though, without the cancer and the chemo it would be different wouldn’t it…
One last thank you to my dear friend Adam Carroll. He ran the Heaven can Wait race on Sunday in Bend, OR in my honor. Thank you Adam for your love and support, and to Molly Carroll for the photo!
Nite, nite!
xoxo Hilary
