Health Update
I spent last Thursday and Friday up at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. They took stool, blood, and tissue samples with the hopes of finding a virus in my colon, as an explanation of why the chemotherapy I am currently on is not forcing my colitis into remission.
Just got the results back.
They found nothing. No virus. That's bad.
It means that my colitis is just very aggressive in it's own right and will probably not be forced into remission by any drugs I am on or have been on in the past. There are now two options left to me.
Option #1- Experimental drugs not yet approved by the FDA. I have the information on joining one such "investigational trial." Apparently they've been quite successful with the first formulas of the drug in question and are constantly refining it.
Basically I'd be their guinea pig. They'd administer the drug and gather all kinds of data on how it effects me.
Pros: It helps them refine the drug, get it approved so it could potentially help thousands of others, it's entirely free, and I would get paid. It also might put me into remission, which is the next best thing to an outright cure.
Cons: I'd have to go off the meds I'm currently on, which would mean discomfort while I'm trying to make this semester of school a productive one. There's no guarantee at all that the drug will help at all. So I might endure some really unpleasant crap for no pay-off. There's no guarantee that the drug wouldn't kill me, either.
Option #2- Surgery to have my colon removed. They'd remove all of it, then section off a portion of my lower intestine, making me a new but less effective colon.
Pros: No more colitis because no more colon. No more toxic immuno-suppressant drugs that leave me in danger of infection I wouldn't normally be in danger of. No more crapping blood. Hopefully I would be able to put on weight and keep it on now. No more having to sprint to the bathroom and sometimes not making it in time. No more accidentally shitting myself like a 2 year old.
Cons: No more colon. So if they find a cure for colitis in 10-15 years, it will avail me not. Also, since they'd be making me a new colon (the short, big intestine) out of a piece of my small intestine (the narrow long stuff that's all coiled up in your tummy). So it's not like I'd be crapping into a bag, but since the small intestine isn't used to bacterial exposure, I might have to deal with frequent infection. But antibiotics are a LOT better on the system than the shit I'm currently on.
So, sports fans, what option would you take? The earliest I'd be able to have surgery without interfering with school would be May, so in the meantime I'll likely try the experimental drugs. Who knows? They might just work.
Gaige
Just got the results back.
They found nothing. No virus. That's bad.
It means that my colitis is just very aggressive in it's own right and will probably not be forced into remission by any drugs I am on or have been on in the past. There are now two options left to me.
Option #1- Experimental drugs not yet approved by the FDA. I have the information on joining one such "investigational trial." Apparently they've been quite successful with the first formulas of the drug in question and are constantly refining it.
Basically I'd be their guinea pig. They'd administer the drug and gather all kinds of data on how it effects me.
Pros: It helps them refine the drug, get it approved so it could potentially help thousands of others, it's entirely free, and I would get paid. It also might put me into remission, which is the next best thing to an outright cure.
Cons: I'd have to go off the meds I'm currently on, which would mean discomfort while I'm trying to make this semester of school a productive one. There's no guarantee at all that the drug will help at all. So I might endure some really unpleasant crap for no pay-off. There's no guarantee that the drug wouldn't kill me, either.
Option #2- Surgery to have my colon removed. They'd remove all of it, then section off a portion of my lower intestine, making me a new but less effective colon.
Pros: No more colitis because no more colon. No more toxic immuno-suppressant drugs that leave me in danger of infection I wouldn't normally be in danger of. No more crapping blood. Hopefully I would be able to put on weight and keep it on now. No more having to sprint to the bathroom and sometimes not making it in time. No more accidentally shitting myself like a 2 year old.
Cons: No more colon. So if they find a cure for colitis in 10-15 years, it will avail me not. Also, since they'd be making me a new colon (the short, big intestine) out of a piece of my small intestine (the narrow long stuff that's all coiled up in your tummy). So it's not like I'd be crapping into a bag, but since the small intestine isn't used to bacterial exposure, I might have to deal with frequent infection. But antibiotics are a LOT better on the system than the shit I'm currently on.
So, sports fans, what option would you take? The earliest I'd be able to have surgery without interfering with school would be May, so in the meantime I'll likely try the experimental drugs. Who knows? They might just work.
Gaige