My scheduled GPO visit was this morning. Turns out I have soft tissue damage in my thigh as well as my ankle. He says they’re likely the cause of the blood clots. And I’ll be on blood thinners for the rest of my life. He doesn’t think there’s been a study on cancer patients and broken bones and the chances of clots. If a cancer patient needs surgery, they automatically put them on blood thinners. According to him, there isn’t a chance these clots will cause a stroke or something, that they won’t move, the blood thinners will just break them down over time and stop more from forming.

My tumour markers are up 10 points to 78, but the CT scan shows no significant tumour movement so for now I stay on Capecitabine.

My GP appointment this afternoon was informative too. He affirmed what my GPO said this morning and added that with this specific drug, there’s no follow up. Because I have scheduled CT scans, it will be monitored.

He also suggested I look up Advanced Care Planning rather than signing a M.O.S.T. form. Advanced Care Planning allows for more leeway and specifics and would suit my current health conditions better.

Why are all the health care professionals I’ve seen so surprised that I didn’t have any symptoms for these clots? Is it really that unusual?

After these last few weeks, I feel like I can finally breath easy.

My goal, since mom died, was to make my death as easy as possible for my sister. She’s seen enough of it and dealing with mom’s estate was hard even though my mom planned ahead. I want her to have to do as little as possible when I die.

A few weeks ago, I was finally able to access our community’s Home Care team. This includes home health care visits and a palliative counsellor. It was (and still is) important to me to have all my ducks in a row before I need them in a row.

I’ve had home visits from the nurses, and spoke to the counsellor who gave me loads of information that is helping me along. We also discuss M.O.S.T. (Medical Orders For Scope of Treatment) and I’ll be talking to my GP about it on Tuesday.

Having terminal cancer is tough enough but then throw in other possibly complicated health conditions such as these blood clots and I’m back to feeling very overwhelmed, and relieved that I started all this.

My mom would call it serendipity that I started my “end game” before others thought I needed to. I’m glad I did.

So went for my routine CT today. An hour later they called saying I needed to go to emergency because I have an embolism.

4 hours later, it seems I have a clot in each lung. They could have been caused by my broken ankle or the cancer itself. Apparently cancer causes you blood to thicken. I’m now on blood thinners.

I had no symptoms, no shortness of breath, no nothing. My vitals are all normal.

Just one more thing…..