Oncology appt

Saw the oncologist this morning. This guy is amazing. My parents were impressed when they met him while I was in the hospital and today, Scott was very impressed too. He spent an HOUR with us. He is concerned that I am not eating, he wanted to know if I get full fast or I just don't want to eat. It's a little of both. He may have to give me meds to stimulate appetite. Never in a million years would I have thought I would have this problem. It feels like a feeding aversion, which is ironic, since that is what I specialize in as a speech path. PET scans are scheduled for Tuesday, which was supposed to be the day I went back to work. I am waiting on McGinty's office to call me to schedule the port surgery. Anyway, Dr. Lilly talked a lot about the side effects of the chemo. I am concerned about the likelihood I will have diarrhea. My job is certainly not conducive to having this problem. Also, I will have numbness, tingling and extreme sensitivity to my hands, feet and throat. I will not be able to touch anything cold or drink anything cold. If the numbness in the feet gets too bad, it can affect my walking and driving. Again, not conducive to my job. And of course, the side effects don't go away when they turn the medicine off; with each treatment, they will last longer and longer, until it gets to the point they don't go away between treatments. Oh, the good news is- I can have sugar. He said cancer will feed off anything and if there's no sugar, it will feed off muscle or whatever else it can find. So bring on the dessert! That's a relief, since I've been stealing Megan's chocolate while she's at school. After my initial chemo treatment, I will eventually start taking the treatments over the weekend. I will go in on Friday, they will hook me up via the port in my clavicle, I will go home and it will get turned off 48 hours later. Maybe I already told you that. Anyway, I will wear a fanny pack (whoo hoo, that's a fashion statement) and I can be at home or wherever I want to be.
I hope and pray you never need an oncologist, but if you do, Dr. Lilly is just fantastic. Scott summed it up by saying he's brilliant but quirky, that's a good description. After the appt, Scott took me to Bella Italia. I haven't been in a restaurant in 8 weeks and have had no alone time with Scott in about that long, so it was nice to go out. Unfortunately, I just couldn't eat. I ordered soup and salad but ate very little. I did eat the bread. For some reason, since this whole ordeal started, bread has been the one thing I do want to eat. And I don't mean that Bunny stuff- I want real bread.
I want to say thanks to everyone who has sent cards. I love mail! My GI doc sent a real nice card with a self-addressed stamped envelope and a note that said pay now, but that's another post...
Love,
Michele