"Some Things are Too Strange to be Coincidence"

 

So it was check-in-with-the-doctor time at my house this week.  I'm four months in to my cancer journey and I was cautiously optimistic.  I feel pretty good most of the time and have had very few side effects from the immune therapy treatment.  I have energy enough to work part time, keep the house up, practice yoga, walk the dogs, and even go to the gym - but I wanted to hear good news from the person who kinda has my life in his hands - Dr. C.  (As anyone living with cancer knows, the most important decision a person with cancer can make is the choice of the doctors on their healing team, particularly the Oncologist.  If you don't feel a connection with your first choice, please move on until you get the right doctor!)

Dr. C. looks like he belongs on a surf board in Santa Cruz rather than in an Oncology Department.  Strange choice for me as I usually go for women doctors, but by a crazy coincidence, I had met him two years earlier when a biopsy I had produced an amyloidosis  result and earned me a trip to Oncology.  Although I didn't have amyloidosis, little did I realize how important that appointment would be.  Unlike most doctors, Dr. C. didn't intimidated me into silence or one word answers, so when I was offered a choice I picked him.  At the very first appointment, when I was still numb, in shock and struggling not to break down into an epic crying jag, Dr. C simply walked in and proposed immune therapy.  Right then, my energy shifted ever so slightly as a glimmer of hope appeared - I was now cautiously optimistic. 

9/9/15 -Fast forward 4 months and 8 Nivolumab treatments.  Dr. C examined the numerous periodic blood tests and x-rays, and after we exchanged questions and answers, he put his hand up.  It took me a second to comprehend and to respond in kind - we high-fived!  That said, he ordered a new CT scan to get a better look at my insides, but any appointment with a high-five is a win for my cautiously optimistic spirit!  I then had Opdivo treatment #9 with no side effects.

Here are my two canine members of the healing team, Abby and Angus: