Tuesday Evening.......October 30th

25th Day of Healing...Today we got a "glimpse" at the future.....

Today Linda and I met with the medical oncologist...to see about the CTscan from yesterday and what the next steps were to be.....

First...he said the scan showed the tumors and nodes were "shrinking quite nicely"....

He then he said the initial treatments (chemo and radiation) were very aggressive to get things at the beginning...anything else from this point on was to go after "rogue cells".

He said that Linda had the hardest time of anyone in their experience with the GI problems (the tube feeding and all). He said that any symptoms Linda now had with her GI were most likely "post traumatic stress syndrone". Any symptoms she has now (and she has some) will work their way out with time.

Linda is now scheduled for her second phase of chemo which starts November 19th....it is TAXOL which is given on day 1 of 21 day cycles..of which there will be 4 of them...so on November 21....December 10....December 31...and January 21 the chemo will be given for each of the 4 cycles....

These cycles are designed to get the "rogue cells".....the cells that might have migrated with all of this....he is saying to do another CTscan in a year.....but is willing to do one sooner if she wishes....I think his statement was that it wouldn't make a difference how often it is done..when it gets to a certain point then they can deal with it....

Linda is very close to her emotions right now..things are a bit "raw".....it will take time......and she has to deal with the fatigue factor and eating....these are the two things Linda needs to figure out.....not overdoing and getting some nourishment of the right kind and amount... also there is the fear of the future and the unknown.....

Dave

ps..Linda cooked some fudge for the nurses in the infusion center..and they really liked it...Linda is very appreciative of their assistance and support during her first phase of chemo.