Today we were able to meet with Dr. Saab (liver specialist) at UCLA. [Side bar: this appointment was actually cancelled, in a series of errors. But my incredible wife went to bat for me and after being on the phone for almost 40 minutes she was able to get my referring doctor to convince Dr. Saab’s office to squeeze me in- TALK ABOUT SAVING THE DAY!!! How bad ass is she!?] Anyway- he was incredible. He thinks I’ve been misdiagnosed, and that it’s more likely that I have fibrolamellar, which is still a liver cancer but a more common one for younger women to have, and one that’s much less deadly. He said I’ve got a few things going for me: my age, how healthy my liver is and that I’m now at UCLA, where I’ll have a team of top notch docs to review my case and give me the best treatment possible.
Unfortunately we didn’t really come away with any difinitive answers or a plan today, but we feel like we’re at least on the right path now! Dr. Saab mentioned the possibility of surgery, chemo, radiation, and even going in and burning some of the smaller tumors (like you would with skin cancer). It’s nice knowing that there are so many ways to go about getting this stuff out of my body. He said he wants to be very aggressive, hopefully that means he’ll help to get the doctors working quickly as well!
I have an appointment with Dr. Finn (oncologist @ UCLA) on the 12th, though my fingers are crossed that he’ll be able to squeeze me in sooner! That’s all for now, folks!