Posted 2016-07-18T17:32:00Z

Road Trip to the Mayo Clinic

It has been a while since my last post, things have not been going so well and I couldn’t bring myself to write a post filled with nothing with grey clouds. I also needed to post about some sunshine. Since the beginning of June it has been pretty gloomy.

I began a phase of chemoradiation treatment and things went smoothly at first and then took a bit of turn for the worse. I had complications which landed me back in the hospital for 5 days and unable to eat food. I’m happy to say that I completed my 28 chemoradiation treatments with only minimal radiation burns so in that respect I count myself lucky. So now about 3 weeks have passed since the end of chemoradiation and I am starting feel better. I am still on IV nutrition which I have been on since June 11th and the IV Nutrition bags smells terrible, like hamster pellets floating in luke warm beef broth. However, the IV Nutrition takes care of all my nutritional needs but does nothing to help hunger pangs or cravings. During BBQ season this has become a new evil form of torture, I swear I can smell a steak on a grill from a half mile away. But there is a light at the end of this tunnel and I am working to wean myself off of IV Nutrition and hope to have that transition completed in the next week (it will be quite a while before I get to have my steak). It is amazing the things I took for granted. I miss the taste of a fresh, cool, grape, a perfectly ripened cherry or waking out to my garden and picking a cherry tomato off the vine and eating it. I really miss enjoying summers produce and I doubt I’ll ever take it for granted again. I miss being able to go out with friends, ordering some appetizers and enjoy the friendship and food. Being on IV nutrition has left me feeling cut off from the rest of my family and friends. It’s no fun to go to a restaurant and watch other people eat while you have a backpack of TPN formula being pumped through a tube into the port in your chest. And lugging the stupid backpack for 14 hours a day has gotten old, but like I said there is a light at the end of the tunnel and this time it’s not a train.

But enough about things I took for granted and on to things I grateful for…

A few days ago Bill and I drove south to Rochester MN. It is home to the Mayo Clinic, one of the most renown hospitals in the world. People come from all the globe seeking a treatment or rather a cure at Mayo. I am lucky and grateful that Mayo is only an hour and a half car ride from my house. I love my oncology team at Regions Hospital but with nature and location of my tumor it was clear I need not just any surgeon; I need a surgical ROCK STAR! The Mayo Clinic in nationally recognized in more specialties than any other hospital in the nation and they are ranked #1 Nationally for the surgery I will need and ranked #3 in Cancer Care. Bill and I had spoken about the surgery I would need to remove my tumor and where I wanted to be seen. Bill felt very strongly that we should go to Mayo for a surgical consultation. He didn’t want to have any “what if’s” in the future should things not turn out the way we are hoping and expecting. I chose an aggressive treatment plan that was outside of the norm and this path has not been easy. I did not want to lose or fail having come this far and wanted to hear what the best and brightest in the medical community had to say about my overall condition and what I could do to beat this thing moving forward.

So last Wednesday and Thursday I underwent two days of testing and consultations at the Mayo Clinic. Everything went smoothly, the scheduling, waiting, testing process runs like a well-oiled machine and this well-oiled machine just happens to be in thee most beautiful and opulent hospitals I have ever seen. It is real swanky, there is marble, granite, travertine, sculptured metal as well as actual art and historical displays everywhere. Picture being on the set for season one of Mad Men if it were a show about a hospital instead of an ad agency. That is what it is like at the Mayo Clinic.

Thursday morning, we met with the Oncologists to review my case and discuss the CT scan Mayo performed the day before, and finally we received good news! The first doctor we met with reviewed my medical and treatment history and got clarification and details where needed. Bill and I were impressed with his command of all my medical history over the last 4 months given how many issues I had with the treatment and side effects. He was impressed with my ability to come so far and still be smiling despite all the unpleasant complications and how intense my cancer treatment has been. He took his time and made sure he had all of his questions answered before leaving to consult with the head oncologist. This is par for the course and has followed the pattern of consults from the beginning. A meeting with a Resident M.D or Fellow and then I get to meet with the head doctor or oncologist.

The head of my Mayo oncology team came in looking like he had important news to tell us. He started with facts and details about my lab work and my treatment to date. Then he got to the part we were all waiting for, my CT scan results from the day before. Beaming, he said “Overall, the CT chest, abdomen, and pelvis is consistent with a dramatic, remarkable response to the chemotherapy and chemoradiation treatment.” So in other words the tumor has not only shrunk enough to operate the results exceeded expectations. There is no more talk of “not possible”, “removing bone” or other important Shannon parts I would like to hang onto. Needless to say it was a very emotional moment for both Bill and I. We had the rest of the morning to let the good news sink in until my consultation with the surgeon in the afternoon. Bill had a burger for lunch to celebrate the good news and I had a couple celebratory French fries.

We met with the surgeon later that afternoon, he was a serious looking man of few words. But I do believe he is the rock star surgeon I have been looking for having been at Mayo since 1979. He felt confident he will be able to perform the surgery with success. This is going to be a major operation and certainly no picnic, I expect the recovery will be long and painful. After a 6-week recovery from surgery I will still need two more months of Chemotherapy to eradicating any rogue cancer cells that may have been missed.

Surgery is scheduled at Mayo for August 2nd. I still have a long road ahead but at least now I have been given the gift of hope.

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