One of the worst phone calls of my life

PART 3 OF 3.

When the call came from Dr. Pommier on July 21, 2022, I was at home, so I went outside and sat under our deck umbrella while he told me the results of my DOTATATE-PET scan. He is a very nice man with a good bedside manner; however, there was no way to sugar-coat this news. He said my cancer has metastasized, and I have numerous sesame-seed sized tumors all over my abdomen.

• Diaphragm, both on top and underneath
• Omentum
• Left fallopian tube
• Left ovary
• In and on the liver
• Sigmoid colon and possibly the pouch of Douglas
• On many other surfaces including abdominal walls
• And one spot on the bone of my upper right arm

Although I knew that the spots on my liver might be a recurrence of my cancer and I was mentally prepared to hear the news I would have to get liver surgery, I was absolutely gobsmacked that there were so many other places the cancer was now.

TREATMENT PLAN

Dr. Pommier is confident that he will be able to get most of the abdominal cavity tumors with aggressive surgery. The tumors on top of my diaphragm and on my arm might possibly be artifacts of the scan and not really there, so at this time those will just be monitored for while to see what they do. I’m going to start monthly Sandostatin shots, which work very well to slow neuroendocrine cancer growth. Here is the surgery plan:

• a full hysterectomy (ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus)
• liver resection
• removal of the omentum, aka omentumectomy
• many tumors plucked or scraped from surfaces including abdominal walls and diaphragm
• a possible sigmoid colon resection
• a possible gall bladder removal, aka cholecystectomy

That’s a lot! No wonder Dr. Pommier says I need to be off work for six weeks, and it will be three months to full energy! I am EXTREMELY grateful that my treatment plan does not involve chemo or radiation.

After getting off the phone with Dr. Pommier, I went and found Corey. I fell sobbing into his arm and gave him the news.

PART 1, PART 2