Dr. Huh

I'm so glad that I decided to get a second opinion about my cancer from Dr. Huh, a gynecological oncologist at UAB hospital today. I was really impressed with him. He was smart and thorough. He said my cancer is not behaving the way juvenile granulosa cell cancer typically behaves. It is not normally so aggressive and does not cause the major problem I’ve been having with ascites (fluid building up in my abdomen). He felt the pathology report done of tissue from my original tumor could have led to the wrong conclusion and that we might be dealing with a different type of cancer. Dr. Huh strongly recommended that the tissue be look at again by an internationally renowned pathologist and said that if I were his daughter, he would want to be absolutely certain that the diagnosis was correct so I could get the right treatment. I was completely on board with this idea because I had wondered if it was possible that my diagnosis was incorrect but never asked. He said it would take at least a week before the report came back but he caught us in the lobby as we were leaving to say he was going to do everything he could to rush the process. 

He gave me so much information and so much to think about that I’m not sure where to go from here in this post. I think I will do use bullet point to make it easier on myself:

>The notes from all my CT scans made their way from the cancer center at St. Vincent’s to Dr. Huh’s office at UAB, but he did not get the actual images. He said to be on standby in case he gets the scans and decides I need surgery. 

>Depending on what the new pathology report says, Dr. Huh might want to have a laparoscopic biopsy done to get a sample of the newly formed tumors.

>If the cancer is juvenile granulosa cell, the estrogen being produced by my remaining ovary could be contributing to the newly formed tumors. I don’t think he was suggesting that the other should be removed because there isn’t a way to know if that is the case. I’m not actually sure if he was just giving me information or saying that removing the second ovary could be a possibility, but he did bring up something Dr. Barnes had told me before my surgery in January: if I was much older, Dr. Barnes would have just performed a full hysterectomy to be cautious. He left some of my lady parts to preserve my fertility. 

>Dr. Huh had to examine my vajayjay. I had a feeling that might happen but it always makes me feel super awkward. I’m not 100% of what he was looking for in there. I like having all my clothes on when I meet someone for the first time. 

>The chemo regime I was on was taxol and carboplatin. Dr. Huh said the more traditional approach to treating juvenile granulosa cell is BEP chemotherapy (a combination of bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatin). This approach is more aggressive and there are concerns about toxicity and it affecting my quality of life. The side effects are also much worse. He gave me the option of starting chemotherapy right away but I told him I wanted to wait for the pathology report to came back. 

>He was also ok with me cancelling my Avastin treatment in the morning until the report comes back. The Avastin could help to reduce the fluids in my abdomen but it also makes surgery riskier if I need it. 

I’m too tired to think of anything else. I remember thinking that the hard times were over and it was all going to get better. Although I have no idea what’s in store for me at this point, I know that more hard times are ahead now. I feel as though I’m being tested to see how much I can endure. I haven’t broken yet. So to cancer I say, “Bring it on, bitch.”