Surgeon Called!

Dr. Kim called me yesterday!  That was fast...  basically, he didn't say yes and he didn't say no.  He said more or less that it's up to me.  Hu?

Let me explain...  he said he could remove my right lobe, where my biggest tumors are located but that he would be leaving about 10 tumors behind.  That seems like a lot to me.  I forgot to ask him if he could do anything about those remaining tumors--like RFA (radio frequency ablation) or cyro-surgery (freeze them), etc.  I did call back but have not received a return call yet.

We discussed my scan a bit.  He said the good news is that I appear to be stable, which is great!  I told him that I would wait to talk this all over with my oncologist on the 5th but would he have access to the new scan, etc. and he said he would also be calling my onc.  So, I feel rather sad, actually.  I would have rather heard YES we can or NO we can't.  Not--uh, it's up to you.

He also said he thought he Y90 would be a good option for me.  This would be the sir-spheres (little radio-active beads).  I did get emailed to me by another patient, a paper on the possible side-effects of this procedure.  I guess the beads can get out of your liver and cause problems in the stomach called gastroduodenal ulcers.  They are really painful and don't respond well to standard ulcer type treatment (PPI's, acid reducers).  Usually, surgery will provide relief.  The beads never ever go away.  I did not know that.  I thought they dissolved but they don't. They can also just get stuck in tissue and cause pain.  The incidence seems very low -- between 2.9% and 4.8%.  That's pretty low odds.

I emailed the fellow patient who got me Dr. Kim's name and told her what he said.  She is going to talk to her contact (a doctor/surgeon) and see who here, if anyone, she would recommend for the sir-spheres.

I've also been looking at clinical trials.  I'm just not sure if I should go there yet.  I will bring that up at my appointment in February with my Oncologist.

Cheers!