Well as most of you know I had my all important doctors’ appointment at M.D Anderson on Thursday in Houston. Other than having to wake up at 4 a.m and then gouging my shin on the taxi cab door the trip down there was a success. It was a little surreal arriving at the "top cancer hospital in the U.S" and realizing that I was there as a patient, not a visitor. Everywhere I looked there were people who I could tell had been through a great deal of chemotherapy and radiation. I guess you could say it just made things more REAL to me. We made our way to the 7th floor and completed ALL the necessary paperwork and then began to visit with different nurses. One nurse came in and did a modified physical on me. One of the questions she asked was spell the word world backwards. It sounds easy, but it wasn't. Or, I might just be slow; you try it and let me know. I was finally able to visit with the neuro-oncologist Dr. Groves after he had already reviewed my before and after MRI scans. Dr. Groves was very blunt and confident. He talked about how great of a job he felt that Dr. Mickey did on my surgery, which was comforting. After we had asked our million and one questions it basically comes down to two oncologist having two different opinions about how we should treat the remaining cancer. Dr. Maher in Dallas, believes we should treat the cancer with a combination of both chemotherapy and radiation while Dr. Groves wants to do radiation first and most likely do chemotherapy afterwards. Because of the recent advancements in chemotherapy there is no research as to what the benefits or long term side effects of doing the combination of treatments at the same time are.
After reading that I think you can see where the title of this blog comes from; I have two experts giving me different opinions and I’m supposed to decide which one is right. As if making that decision isn’t hard enough, I also have to decide which radiation oncologist to perform the radiation treatments. I will most likely have the 6 weeks of radiation performed in Dallas or Houston. If you live in or around Houston don’t read the next couple of sentences. I’m sure Houston is a great city but I can think of a million other places I would rather spend 6 weeks of my life. I lived in Dallas for almost 4 years and have a lot friends there so Dallas is my first choice as far as locations go. However, location isn’t what matters and I will go wherever I feel I can get the best treatment. Any want to go spend 6 weeks in Juarez, Mexico with me?
Both of the oncologist I spoke to feel that we need to begin the radiation treatments pretty quickly. However, I spoke to my neuro-surgeon Dr. Mickey on Friday, and he wants to see me again before I do anything. Of course thinking like a car dealer, while on the phone with him I asked him if my second two surgeries were under warranty; he just laughed. I will most likely go back to Dallas within the next two weeks to have another MRI to make sure I no longer have an infection and have healed enough to begin radiation. As you can see I have a lot of thinking/research to do and some big decisions to make in the coming weeks. I know that at the end of the day GOD will give me the guidance I need to make the right decision.
Well I think I’ve taken up enough of your time for today. I greatly appreciate your interest and support in the battle I am dealing with right now and I look forward to posting good news in the near future. If I can ask you for 1 favor, that is to continue to pray for my continued healing and ask GOD to give me the guidance to choose the right treatment.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
