Monday, August 18, 2008

Just thought you might like to hear the latest that we know:

We weren't hearing from MDA, so your Dad began calling. We learned that the fax with the report of the biopsies had such bad print in one part they couldn't read it. So we sent a fax of the 3 pages we had, and had the original report re-sent by the lab. We also were connected to Kathy Bisotini, who seems to work for one of the doctors who might possibly be one that we would see while there. We had a very good conversation with her, in which she elaborated quite a bit on possible scenarios. We learned, among other things:

Squamous (a long "a") cell responds well to chemo AFTER radiation, not before. So, according to what we understood, they would do radiation and then chemo.

We told her what we had been told in ABQ about the lymph nodes, which was that if the tumor is cancerous the nodes are bound to be cancerous. She said that was not an absolute, that in fact they could just be swollen in reaction.

She said that (after looking it up) it looked to her as if the cancer could be treated with the proton beam, which exposes less of the organs to radiation-- focuses on a prescribed area. She also said that the nodes would be treated with radiation.

She also said that if all that we re successful, your Dad could recover, and if not be cancer free, at least have a number of good years.

We were rather giddy after talking to her, but are trying to be a little cautious in our enthusiasm because we don't know for sure who she is and who she works for, and how expert she is. But it has made us feel a lot better.

We think we will hear from "Rick" tomorrow to let us know when our appointment is, because after we talked to Kathy we called Rick again. He was with a patient, and it was close to 5:00 p.m., but his (secretary?) said, "You didn't hear this from me, but he is going to call you with an appointment." So if we don't hear from him by 10:00 a.m., your Dad will call him once again!

So we'll let you all know. Love to you all and thanks for the prayers. Mama
(Carol)