Wednesday...July 25th

Today we met with the radiologist…he is actually a Radiation Oncologist….the chemo doctor we last met with is called a Medical Oncologist.

The doctors had met this morning as part of the tumor board I talked about yesterday. The Oncologist said the Thoracic Surgeon wanted to do a biopsy called a media stinoscopy. The short story on this as we understand it is that Linda has a node on the right side of the center that has a 95% of being cancerous…the affected lung and three cancerous nodes are on the left. So with a less than 5% chance that it is non cancerous, we agreed with the two oncologists that we would consider the node cancerous and not go forward with the biopsy…this means no invasive surgery and we can get on with the chemo and radiation. (If the node was found to be noncancerous, then the regimen would be totally changed to surgery on the left lung and left nodes…..followed by chemo).

The Oncologist said Linda will have 35 sessions of radiation….5 times per week for 7 weeks. (Remember the chemo will be the first 6 days and the 21st-26th days of radiation). What surprised us was that another CTscan is to be done…and the radiation treatments will start 7 to 10 days after this scan. The scan allows the doctor to map out the areas to radiate….he actually will tattoo Linda’s chest (yes permanently....but the tattoos look like freckles). This way each time she has a treatment they can line her up properly. The 7 to 10 days is needed then to formulate the “plan”

The nurse met with us prior to the doctor and she gave us a bunch of material to read….on top of yesterday’s material. She said “each person is different”….we hear that over and over…she said side effects of the radiation will include “Esophogitis”….a painful throat…because the esophagus is in the radiation area and will be impacted. Linda will also lose weight…suffer some radiation burning….etc. etc….

The bottom line continues to be ATTITUDE….DIET… and EXERCISE….with Linda we have a winner in all three…..she has a 100% commitment. The doctor assured her she can win this.

Anyway…..that’s about it for today. We are heading to Portland to catch a plane in the am to San Jose to work the Grand Prix for Champ Car. Next weekend we are at the Oregon Jamboree with the RV…then it’s full time commitment to the radiation..…the chemo…..and the cure.

Dave