Technical Difficulties

We have been experiencing some outages with our web hosting service lately and are aware of the down time recently with the site. We are looking to move the site, but everything will be behind the scenes, so you’ll still find us at www.gasbarro.net .

Now that the site is back up, I have some news to share. I heard back from Dr. Nauta last week, and the first words he said to me were “I’m not ignoring you!” As we suspected he was consulting with other doctors and wanted to have at least the start of a plan before talking with me. Our conversation covered many bases, but to summarize:

1. He is not certain what he is looking at on the PET scan. He had not viewed the CT scan or the prior CT scans to compare the changes in the “growth”, but he planned to go and look at prior reports and scans to get a better picture of the situation.

2. Per Dr. Nauta: Dr. Karian (my urologist) has been informed and he also viewed the PET scan. He agreed with Dr. Nauta that it’s hard to tell what is or is not growing on my bladder and that further investigation was needed. He would like me to get a cystoscopy, which is when they insert a camera into my bladder. I’ve had this done dozens of times and it’s not a bad test to have. Dr. Karian thinks if this is a tumor “on” the bladder he might see evidence of that inside the bladder in the form of indentation or pressure (as I am not having any bladder related symptoms yet…) I still haven’t talked to or touched base with Dr. Karian.

3. Dr. Nauta wants me to have an MRI done and he wants a neurologist brought in if in fact the twitching and muscle spasms I am experiencing are related to this tumor. The MRI should be able to tell us if this “growth” has grasped a nerve as we suspect. And hopefully it will give them a bit more clarity as to what we are dealing with.

4. As always, Dr. Nauta was looking for the best of the best for me. I told him if surgery was going to happen, he had to put together the best team possible for me at Mt. Auburn because that was the only place I would agree to be admitted to.

5. I told him I still had 15 plus episodes of diarrhea per day and had barely begun to feel OK enough to travel etc, so delaying surgery as long as possible was my preference.

6. After 30 minutes we had covered most of the important points. This week I’ll be making follow up phone calls and setting up my next 2 tests before deciding what the next step is.

7. I told Dr. Nauta that there was now a PMP / appendix cancer specialist in Boston and that I would be seeing him this month for a 2nd (or maybe it’s my 4th or 5th…)opinion. In typical fashion, Dr. N said “that sounds great – you know I’m not territorial”. That’s just one reason why I love this team of doctors.

And that’s all I know. I took the weekend off from all things cancer and spent some time reading and relaxing in NH while Pat hit the slopes. We did make some time for sledding (37 year old bodies just don’t appreciate “catching air” in a plastic saucer) and skating (only fell once, but it was spectacular according to Pat and the bruise that stretches from mid-thigh to mid-butt).
Thanks to everyone for the thoughts and prayers. I appreciate and need them all.

Posted by jean at January 7, 2008 03:49 PM