Oy what a day!

Yesterday was one of those days that takes about 3 days to "wind down" from. Not only did I make my first trip to the oncologist but I spend some time with my ex-husband who I hadn't even spoken to since 1997 and his partner ( that's another blog another day, or maybe later). Get coffee this could take awhile.

Anyway Chris and Jenny came up and Chris came with me to the Dr. and Jenny and Rex visited with Great Grandma while we were there.

After some preliminary blood drawing by the wonderwoman (30 seconds 2 vials of blood didn't feel a thing). We met with the Dr's PA who told us about my kind of cancer and asked alot of questions and did a little exam. She was nice and took her time and answered any questions we had, then she went to get the Dr.

I can't say this guy is Mr. Personality but he's direct and he talks in people friendly terms and he says what he thinks and I guess aside from the fact that I don't think I'll be sharing cookies and tea with him anytime soon he's a good guy.

So here's the deal, I have small cell cancer which is very "active" and likes to travel and grow at a pretty good clip. The good news is it's very receptive to chemo therapy and radiation. Which for me is very good news because the tumor ( damn I hate that word, I need to call it something else) isn't operable, meaning they can't cut it out. Now that dosen't mean it's not cureable it just means it's in a spot that's not "cutoutable". So the Dr said if I was going to get a combination of type of cancer and place for it to be this was an OK combo because it does respond well to chemo. He said IF the cancer hasn't spread , (we don't know that yet) the cure rate is 70-80% so that's pretty darn good. If it has, no way to tell until we know where it decided to meander to. So I will be having a brain scan ( long overdue just for practical matters ) and a bone scan in the next couple of weeks.

Next we discussed getting a second opinion, he said I was free to do that and he could reccomend someone but he was concerned that this would be another 2-3 weeks down the road before I would start treatment and if it was him he wouldn't wait that long because of the "frisky" nature of this cancer. That dosen't mean once I start treatment I can't get another opinion, he was just concerned about time being wasted in the meantime. So, that being said ,I start chemo therapy on Tuesday, I'll go 3 days a week and then take 2 weeks off and do that 4 times. I have researched and this seems to be the beginning standard of care for this type of cancer. Then after the scans are in, IF there is no spreading I will start radiation for 6 weeks. If the cancer has spread then no radiation because they won't be able to pinpoint places to zap. So as much as 6 weeks of radiation dosen't sound fun I have to hope that that's what comes next because that's my quickest way to getting rid of this.

Thank goodness I had Chris with me to take notes and ask questions! We discussed it and interestingly while I felt I might be rushed into treatment Chris was in total agreement with the Dr. I mentioned wanting to check anyway with the Dr. in Syracuse and he said I should go ahead if I could but that I should start treatment anyway here and I guess I can't fight with that. When I mentioned I thought I was being rushed the answer was , yes they're rushing to save your life..can't fight with that.

So I hope that answers some questons for now, stay tuned for the meeting with the ex ( interesting) and the difference between the Regional Oncology Center in Syracuse and the Drs. office in Watertown.