So, my cancer " journey" has been a long and twisty path of well, stuff. I had gallstones acting up…read moreand then they discovered I had kidney cancer. This episode was just a surgery and done,they took a chunk of my kidney out, and they said they got it all. The surgeon was excellent, two thumbs up. 5/5. Highly recommend him, but not cancer. Go figure.
Then I put off my colonoscopy a couple years because life stuff happened ( see kidney cancer) , I got super sick with what I thought was the flu, and I ended up having stage 3C colon cancer during the pandemic: surgery at Providence, chemo, and I was enrolled in an immunotherapy trial. That surgeon was great, I struggled with the oncologist, some of the nurses were amazing, the hematologist was not my fav. Experience was maybe a 3.5/5.
Do not put off your colonoscopy, kids.
Flash forward to after I finished all that in November of 22, and the oncologist let me know my bloodwork from March of 22 was concerning. Ok. 9 months had passed. Hm. :(
Without delving into the whole long tale, I now have cancer number 3, stage 1 Multiple Myeloma which will be treated with oral medications and injections but not those long hours connected to an IV full of chemicals. After 2 false starts with 2 Newport based oncologists, I found Dr. Catherine O' Brien in McMinnville. She is very good at explaining things, I feel listened to, my questions have been answered, her office is staffed with friendly kind people,and the waiting room is nice. So far, so good, if anything about having cancer again is good.
I'm told it is treatable. Tom Brokaw has been living with it for 10 years. He is 84. Im just gonna channel my inner Tom Brokaw ( but at 50 something). He is a nice role model, right?