Nevermi....well, not quite yet....

Robbie and I saw the onc yesterday and got the results of the CT scan I had last Friday. Dr. S was very upbeat, saying that the scan looks very, very good and that my bilirubin level is now down to 2! I was hoping for a 1 (and an all-clear sign), but 2 sure is better than the 32 from last month. He said that the scan shows an area that is still blocked and that he forwarded the results to the surgeons for evaluation. They now say that the procedure which was technically impossible last month is do-able because the tumor shrinkage that Vectibix has provided gives them room to work. So, Dr. S set up an appointment for me to see the surgeon on Friday.


The goal of the surgery would be to insert a stent into my liver to hold open the bile duct. The procedure is “minimally invasive”, using some kind of needle to insert the stent rather than making a big incision. That’s sounds good. Dr. S did not go over the procedure in detail, however, as the surgeon – actually a doctor of “Interventional Radiology” - will explain it tomorrow. Also, it seems that Dr. S feels that the Vectibix alone might actually get me to an all-clear but, in order to ward off problems in the future, I should have the stent inserted now, while there’s room to get it done. Tomorrow I’ll get the full picture of what it’s all about and – I assume – will set up an appointment sometime soon to have it done. In any event, we are very close to getting clear and very optimistic that this will soon all be behind us.

So, it was all good news yesterday and I polished it off with another dose of the hamster juice. I must say that I like the fact that Vectibix is pretty easy on the digestive system. These last few visits, Rob and I have gone out for dinner in the neighborhood after treatment. We’ve hit the tapas place, a new sushi bar and, last night, Chinese (I can now recommend the Taiwanese Mei Fun at “Ginger” on East 55th). Makes the long day of hanging around the clinic seem more worth it!