The Gall

The end of 2020 approacheth. And let me say, I'm so glad we are finally in the 9th month of the "three weeks to flatten the curve" lifestyle.

One of the many things that happened in 2020 is Joella's cancer reared its ugly head again in March...just after all of the lockdowns started. And in part because of the unknowns of Covid-19, hospitals were discouraging surgeries. But since Joella's last round of treatments in 2017, there's been some new things on the market. One of those is the drug Keytruda, which is an immunotherapy drug--essentially it helps boost the body's ability to fight off disease.

Joella started that treatment fairly soon after diagnosis of the cancer's return, which was detected in a lymph node on her neck and in a spot on her liver. So every three weeks is a trip to the hospital where Joella sits and gets a Keytruda treatment, and I sit in my car on the roof of a parking garage (her treatment locations moved so I got a white wall reprieve--see previous post). And based on the scans she has been getting, the cancer is responding as hoped for with the treatments!! The lymph node spot hasn't grown at all, and the spot on her liver has been shrinking. So.... Yay!!

And the doctors plan on continuing Joella's treatments, but they also want to be a bit more aggressive where they are able. So after some consultations, we've decided to move ahead with a surgery to remove the smaller but still present cancerous portion of Joella's liver. In the words of our doctor, "We can go in and get 99.99% of the tumor and let the medicine hopefully take care of the rest of it." But, there's a twist... because the spot is very near Joella's gall bladder--and because mucosal melanoma is a punk and spreads like a bat in a... wait... was it a bat?... I can't keep fake and real news straight anymore... sorry...--they want to be sure to get all of it just in case it has migrated to the gall bladder. So the gall bladder is being removed, too, which is a common surgery that some of you have probably had.

So on the 29th of December, Joella's heading to the hospital for surgery, assuming her Covid test comes back negative, which we expect. She'll have to be in the hospital a few days after surgery, which means we won't get to celebrate the entry of the new year together. The biggest bummer is neither I nor the girls will be able to visit her in the hospital, but we know Joella will be in good hands while there. The doctors and nurses who have been with Joella during this journey have been great, and we are so thankful for them. Hopefully she can come home on New Year's Day.

We are also anticipating discussions about surgery for the lymph node in Joella's neck at some point in the new year, but they want to get through this surgery first and make sure she is healing and adjusting okay after the surgery. Besides the cancer, Joella is in good health, and the doctors are anticipating a successful surgery, which we are also praying and hoping for.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and thoughts and cards and everything you've done to encourage us. We love you all and hope your holiday season and your new year are blessings to you as you have been a blessing to us.

To end... one of my current favorite memes about the end of 2020. It makes me laugh every time. Every. Time.