Next came a round of scans. Ultrasounds, CT Scans, Gallium Scan. Meetings with doctors. Blood taken. More blood taken. The technicians all comment on my tiny little veins. They need pediatric needles to draw my blood. One tech told me that Maori Warriors have tiny veins which runs in their favor because they don’t bleed as much when attacked. OKKKKK
Then came the day where the doctors all met to decide how best to help me. In the waiting room I was barely able to breathe. Then hyperventilating, then feeling faint. Breathe, my friend Patty texted… slowly… count to 3, and exhale. She told me she was holding my hand in cyberland. Ron had my other hand. They called my name. The doctors came in.
And here is what I found out – that I have a pancreatic endocrine tumor on my pancreas that has metastasized to the liver…. one in each lobe. The lingo is I have a “p-net with mets to the liver”. Their strategy will be to take out the tumors in the liver and then 3 weeks later perform the whipple. The whipple? That is an operation where my pancreatic tumor is removed, as well as my gallbladder, duodenom, some intestines, some bowel, 25% of my stomach and probably some more stuff that I don’t even know about. Then they hook things back up so everything works. Dr. Kuvshinoff told me it’s like plumbing. Dr. K is the chief medical officer at Roswell. He’s a guy who really knows what he is doing. He is also down to earth and very confident he can help me. I am very grateful to have Roswell at my doorstep with doctors like Dr. K and his oncology nurse, Jennifer, who actually answers the phone when I call her with questions.
Here are my gallium scans of my liver and pancreas. The gallium attaches to neuroendocrine tumors and they light up. The first 2 scans show a NET in each lobe. The 3rd scan shows the primary pancreatic tumor:
