And Another Test

Today I am going down to UCLA for a Islet Cell Test. It is supposed to be a special kind of CT test which is good because they are not supposed to take very long. The only thing that sucks is they are using contrast which means I will be getting another IV in the arm. I'm not a big fan of needles if you didn't know that.

I am a little nervous about the outcome. They believe all this started in the pancreas but they haven't been able to see anything there yet. This test is supposed to better show us if there is anything in the pancreas that needs to be removed. Just before Christmas Dr. Hecht (UCLA Oncologist) told me we may do surgery on the pancreas and then put me on the list for a liver. What I am a little confused about is if they don't find anything on the pancreas will they still put me on the list for a liver? If they can't find anything there, it is what is called an Unknown Primary. If they don't see anything they may not want to do the liver transplant because the new liver is then susceptible to getting cancer again from the primary source. Who knows. We will see.

I was supposed to get the sandostatin injection today also but I moved it to Wednesday. I don't want to have both the sandostatin and the contrast injections on the same day. This sandostatin is going to be a pain in the ass. Literally if they decide to give it to me in the ass! The drug is rather thick and so is painful when they shoot it into the muscle. Not cool but hey, it's just once a month. All-in-all I am happy to finally be on some sort of treatment. They are still trying to get approval for another of the drugs Sutent. I don't know when that will happen.

In the next couple of days I hope to have a History 101. I haven't yet posted what went on in the hospital during that week. Until then ...