Today I had the big appointment with my oncologist (Dr. Wagner) and neurological surgeon (Dr. O) on whether I would be done with my chemo. I was very happy to find out from my last MRI at the meeting that there was no sign of tumor regrowth; the new MRI looked almost exactly the same as my first MRI a few weeks ago. Since there was no change, it was looking good, until Dr. Wagner brought up the fact that the name given to my tumor (anaplastic astrocytoma) implies that it is very aggressive tumor. My math lesson today in the doctor's office today was that anaplastic = treat as much as you can or you are in trouble. The fact that mine is in the anaplastic category of names typically means that thing would go from bad to worse, but my tumor still also has it James Dean characteristics by growing slowly and being non-aggressive.
Either way, the doctors decided that it would be best to play it safe and continue my chemo for another six months, just as they would for an aggressive tumor. The only annoying reason they had for continuing my chemotherapy was that my body dealt with my previous chemo rounds much better than expected, so going six more months would not be as taxing on me as with "normal" people. Clearly chemo drugs and I have a love-hate relationship, with me doing most of the hating.
I'll be starting my first new round of chemo next week. I can now kiss my slowly reoccurring pallet of food good-bye, and get used to only eating when stomach isn't rolling. The one good thing about this? I won't be on a round of chemo when I am running 6th grade camp, and going to 8th grade graduation since I will be done with this round February next year. I also know what to expect this time around instead of having to view each chemo dose as a new experiment to see what will happen. Good-bye blueberries, chocolate, and being normal; Oddball Chemo Land here I come!
