Today’s News

Supplements

So today I headed to Boulder and Denver for some appointments. I started with stopping by NatureMed to pick up some supplements Dr. West recommended, that I was out of. That all went smoothly and as planned.

Medical Cannabis

Then I headed in the direction of the medical cannabis store that Dr. Cohen and his staff have a relationship with for the items he recommends. I saw him back in the middle of February and have been waiting basically a month for one particular item to be in stock, so haven’t even started his protocol yet.

Today while I was in the neighborhood, I thought maybe they would have it and I would pick it up. But I also have been keeping in touch with them and they keep not having it in stock so I called ahead, only to be told that they are in the midst of switching over only to recreational cannabis and will no longer be carrying the medical side. So I expressed my dismay, and then called Dr. Cohen’s office to ask, “Now what?”

The upside of dealing with him was that he had sources lined up for where to get what was recommended, which has been my problem seeking things out on my own. So alas.

I got a nice phone message back saying they are working on it and will send me an email on sourcing.

But I was aggravated. It is one thing to want to use cannabis in my pro-health, anti-cancer efforts, but finding the right, high quality products has been difficult. I may have to figure out how to produce my own tinctures. More on that later.

Oncological Exercise Physiologist

Then I went to my appointment with my exercise physiologist, Jo. She is such a wealth of information, having worked with cancer patients for so long. She was sympathetic to my bowel stricture situation, and worked me carefully and gently, while helping me think through things to say to Dr. G, having suggestions, and relaying experiences she knows others have had. She is a gem. She wanted him to know mostly that perhaps the stricture is not just around the bowel but also attached to muscle as some movements are quite painful to me.

Also, she has a colleague, a massage therapist specializing in oncology, who she thinks could help loosen up the stricture in a non-invasive way, so I think I will check into her availability. Of course she is also in Boulder, so yet another provider who is “afar.” It is encouraging to know that someone will deliberately work on cancer patients, though.

Gyn-Onc

So then I headed to Aurora to see Dr. G. His scheduler had “squoze” me into his schedule today so I had to wait a bit past the scheduled time for him to be available, but it was good to see and be seen by him.

Basically he is not worried that it is a spread of cancer. Nothing is evident on the multiple CT scans, and my CA-125 does not indicate anything completely outrageous. He’s thinking most likely it is scar tissue. He wants to wait it out as sometimes these things resolve themselves. I have additional appointments with him in two weeks so we’ll reevaluate at that point, unless I stop being able to pass anything, in which case, I’m to call him immediately. He said the pain that had been on the right side may just have been referred pain because the stricture is on the left side, and now it is hurting where the stricture actually is, although it has lessened in strength, which is good.

If it doesn’t resolve in two weeks’ time, then maybe he’d consider doing a laparoscopy which, as he said, would be therapeutic, in that he could do something to help while in there. I’d just as soon not, so hopefully the various body workers will be able to do their magic and loosen these strands of scar tissue and help me return to more normal functioning.

I am HUNGRY and ready to eat normal food again!

So that’s what I know for now.

Body workers, here I come!