This morning we met with Dr. Mary
Ann Rose, Professor and Medical Director of UC San Diego Radiation
Oncology. She spent over an hour with
us, going over the various procedures and timing. Now that I’ll be starting chemo on December 9
(just got off the phone with the office), I won’t be starting radiation until
mid-April. So we’ll be going over most
of this again at that time. The chemo
will run until mid-March, and then I get 3-4 weeks off to recover before
starting 6 weeks of radiation, which should finish by the end of May.
December 10 – Dye injection at 12pm, out to lunch, 2pm bone
scan. This is to ensure the breast
cancer hasn’t spread to the bones (apparently breast cancer’s next favorite
place to hide out).
December 11 – 3pm Chemo Class
December 12 – after a morning at the radio station, we’ll be
meeting friends to go to Disneyland for a screening of the new movie, Saving Mr. Banks which
is the story of how the movie Mary Poppins was
made. Mr. Banks is the father of the
children taken care of by Mary Poppins, the original movie is really about his
transformation from a curmudgeon to a warm and open family-man. Walt Disney is played by Tom Hanks. P.L. Travers was the author of the Mary
Poppins books and is played by Emma Thompson.
December 16 – 9am
Chemotherapy infusion (will take about 4 hours, prep delivered by IV).
December 17 – 11:30am Chemotherapy injection (will take
about 30 minutes).
December 17 – 2:40pm Dermatologist to check suspicious moles
for skin cancer.
December 24 – 10:30am Dr. Subramanian (chemo check-up &
blood work).
December 26 – 8pm MRI of abdomen for cyst on right kidney.
Now I need to bone up on chemotherapy procedures, remedies,
supplements and diets. Stuff I hadn’t
paid much attention to earlier since chemo hadn’t been part of the original treatment
plan. It’s kind of amazing how much time
this all takes. Once we get into
January, things should settle down some because the extra tests will be
done. As I understand it, there will be
a chemo injection every 3 weeks, preceded by infusion the day before, and a doctor
visit with blood work about 8 days after the injection; for a total of 4
injections given over 12 weeks.
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