Visiting Dr. G

Just before the chemo rounds, we always have an appointment with Tim's oncologist, Dr. G. Last Friday was one of those informative visits.

One new thing we found out about during this visit is that Tim is going to need chemotherapy to his spine. The procedure involves Dr. G inserting a needle into Tim's spine to extract some spinal fluid, mixing that fluid with chemotherapy, and injecting it back into T's spine. He didn't sugarcoat it; it will be painful. It will happen on four separate occasions and we do not yet know when the first round will be.

Tim did not need blood transfusions at all during this cycle, so again the dosage of his chemo will be increased. This does not say anything about the chemo: whether or not it's working. It just means Tim's body is able to fight off infection despite the treatments.

We were also informed on this visit that on Friday the 6th of November, we will know the extent to which the chemotherapy is working. Tim has a CAT scan of his chest and pelvis during Tuesday of that week, which we will be discussing during the appointment. The results of that test will again be analyzed when they are compared to another CAT scan to be done after the sixth and hopefully final chemotherapy treatment (the week ending on December 4th). Around the time of the second CAT scan, T will be getting another PET scan and bone marrow biopsy, just as he did during the diagnosis stage. Hopefully that will be the full circle, the ending mimicking the beginning.

If all goes well, after the sixth round we will be waiting for the cancer to return, running tests every three months at first and then every 6. If it doesn't come back in the next five years, it's not likely to return. Of course, as I'm typing this I'm looking for wood to knock on. We've seen already how much regard life has for our expectations of it.

So we're starting a new round this week...wish us luck!