Julie went home from the hospital today, hooray! 

Surgery Day

Julie's surgery went very well; both her surgeons seemed pleased. (Joe and I told them that they are our Gold Medal Dream Team.) There were no big bad surprises and they got all the visible cancer.  An intraperitoneal port was put in her abdomen; this will deliver a more aggressive chemo than she had last time.  Her outlook is very good.  Truly this is an answer to prayer. She will probably start chemo in three to four weeks.   When I saw Julie this afternoon, she was obviously wiped out  but was alert and coherent; hopefully she'll sleep tonight.

I had hoped this blog would be on “inactive” status for a very long time, but here we are again. At Julie’s regular check up last week, during the physical exam, her doctor found a small mass. A blood test was done which showed that her CA125 level was somewhat elevated. So a CT scan was done, which found areas of concern on her liver and her spleen, in addition to the original mass which is where her cervix would be if she still had a cervix. Thank goodness for that one, as, if the doctor hadn’t detected it during the exam, it would probably have been awhile before the others were found.

The bad news is, Julie needs surgery and chemo again. The good news is, she can have surgery and chemo again. It’s one of those. But mostly, we’re thankful that this is treatable.

It’s been just over three years since Julie’s original surgery, and well over two and a half years since she finished chemo. After the original surgery, Julie’s doctor told her the cancer would come back, eventually, and she’d have to go through treatment again. So the current situation is not a surprise, but it’s still kind of a shock. Personally, I was hoping for a twenty year remission, but 2.5+ years is actually really good. And treatments for ovarian cancer continue to improve.

Julie’s surgery is scheduled for August 9 at Deaconess, and she will probably start chemo in early Sept., although that is just a guess at this point.