Interestingly, when the good doctor arrived, he arrived with Anne. He then gave Anne credit by saying, "Anne seems to have solved the problem that neither Dr. Visser or I could solve."
Dr. Fisher then went on to confirm Mary was feeling better, observed she was vastly improved from only last Friday when he dropped in on Dr. Visser's appointment and then told us that Mary should start engaging with her primary care physician again. The reason? Based on all the recent evidence, and that the pain/narcotics are apparently under control, Mary is cancer free and needs to get on with life. At that point he gave Mary a big hug and I think I saw a peck on the cheek too!
I stated with a gleeful tone in my voice and a twinkle in my eye, "Hey Mary, the Doc is kissing you goodbye! He is blowing you off!" The Doc's response is "Doing this with a patient is such a treat given that I am an Oncologist." Oh, yeah.
The bottom line is magnificent! Mary is cancer free! Hallelujah!
Some more information. Anne, the former pain PA, said that the pain docs's report diagnosed Mary with upper back arthritis. And, the procedure set for the 3rd will tell them what they are dealing with. She tossed terms around like "facet joint arthropathy" which does show up on google as a real thing. Anne also commented that the various images showed the extensive lower back arthritis that Mary had been experiencing before all this cancer stuff started.
Anne also reviewed all of Mary's meds and we are quitting some of the marginal drugs, cutting back on others, increasing yet others and focusing on the drugs that are doing some good. Mary was very glad to hear that. She has been taking: 4 doses of Zofran a day, now its three: 800mg of Celebrex has become 200mg: The two daily diuretics are now zero: The "make the tummy work better because of narcotics" drugs have been increased slightly.
Best of all, her 8 to 11 doses a day of liquid morphine that she was taking as needed for pain are now down to to two based on the past 72 hours. Another Hallelujah!
Mary has asked for sirloin steak for dinner with potatoes and asparagus. No wine because of the narcotics but wow, talk about an appetite coming back! I may open a bottle if it doesn't cause her to grab a bat and do an upside the head thingy on me!
I can tell you the past 3 days have been fantastic as I watch Mary regain her faculties. She is up and moving around, reading the paper, talking to relatives and generally being the Mary we all know and love. She is weak and thin, but she is clearly on a path to regain her strength and some of her weight.
The odds? What odds? We don't care 'bout no stinking odds! For this round, she has beaten cholangiocarcinoma--a cancer than wins the first round 97% of the time!
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