2/21/09 Counting Down

Yesterday we met with the both the radiation oncologist and chemotherapy oncologist at the Clifton Springs Cancer facility, about an hour from home. The facility is really great and has the latest IMRT radiation that is needed to help minimize damage to surrounding tissue. All the staff seemed really wonderful and attentive to our needs. Dr. Albrecht met with us for over two hours and answered all of our questions. He made no bones about how miserable the treatments can be but he feels that we have a reasonably good chance of knocking this out. Because the main cancer site is actually at the base of my tongue, surgery to get rid of all of it is out of the question. This means we will have to have a little longer treatment schedule, seven weeks with radiation five days a week with chemotherapy {Cysplatin} once every three weeks. Next Friday I will be back at the radiation center doing a simulation where they will do a three dimensional mock-up of my head and neck and make the mask to protect the exterior parts of my face and neck that do not get radiation. We are looking at actually starting the treatments on or around March 9th. The first week of treatments they will put in the feeding tube to make sure that I can get enough nutrition over the seven weeks. The secretary checked with our insurance and we will have a $20.00 co pay for each radiation treatment. She told us about a $750 grant the hospital offers and we do qualify, so that is a wonderful thing and will most likely take care of most of the radiation co-pays!!

I received a message on the blog from Lee Rebalko who went through this treatment in Sept. of 07. He mentioned the possibility of pursuing proton radiation which is new and less destructive to surrounding tissue than the IMRT radiation can be. I did a lot of research on this and found out there are currently six facilities around the country that do proton radiation. I contacted three of them in Florida, Mass., and Indiana and I was able to fax them my specific biopsy information. All of them did get back to me and unfortunately, because the main site is the base of tongue, I am not a candidate for this technology, and all of them suggested that right now the best coarse of action is the IMRT radiation at a good facility that does head and neck cancers on a regular basis. So this makes the facility at Clifton Springs seem like a good choice. Thank you Lee for your insight and suggestions, they are greatly appreciated.

I am starting to feel a little stronger every day, solid soft foods are working and I hope that over the next two weeks I’ll be able to put on a few pounds and get a lot of strength back before we start radiation and chemo. There are a lot of unknowns going into treatment and I am going to just have to trust that everything will work out for the best. I am so aware of how important the positive attitude is and I hope we can maintain that throughout the whole process of treatment and recovery!! I am also aware of the power of our collective group vibes and that gives me great consolation. I am so thankful to all of you for your wonderful insights and loving support; it lifts us up more than any of you will ever know. I look forward to hearing from you and the 7:00 pm vibe. I am going to close this post with a wonderful quote that Lea Boylan shared in her comment.

Cancer is so limited
It cannot cripple love
It cannot shatter hope
It cannot corrode faith
It cannot eat away peace
It cannot destroy confidence
It cannot kill friendship
It cannot shut out memories
It cannot silence courage
It cannot invade the soul
It cannot reduce eternal life
It cannot quench the spirit
It cannot lessen the power of the resurrection
Our greatest enemy is not disease, but despair.