Coming Along

I've been feeling a little better the last couple of days. It could be because the new chemo is having an effect. It could be because the increase in steroids is starting to have a cumulative effect. It could be a combination of both.

Yesterday, one of the main doctors in radiation/oncology also called me and I appreciated that. It made me feel a little more secure. He reviewed my recent scans and let me know that there were four small lesions that we should and could treat. He made it sound like no problem at all. He also assured me that everything we had treated was responding well, shrinking or disappearing entirely.

One thing I had been worried about was the status of an available neurosurgeon. The hospital requires that a neurosurgeon be present for the Gamma Knife radiation treatment, although they really don't do much of anything.

My current neurosurgeons are a tag-team, a young, intelligent man recently out of Yale, and an experienced surgeon who has been doing this in Lancaster for the last ten-years. Problem is, the young surgeon is not allowed to do this by himself until he has had 10 procedures with an experienced surgeon (hospital regulations). He is allowed to do tradiational brain surgery, just not radiation surgery (where he really doesn't do anything). That's a little strange.

And the experienced surgery is on vacation and will not be back until the third-week of August. So...

Barb and I discussed going back to our original neurosurgeon. But we quickly agreed that we just do not trust him. We had several bad experiences with him. He offered us bad advice and a general lack of advice. We decided against that idea.

But I wanted to know, if need be, if I could get back under the knife in the first two-weeks of August. The radiation oncologist who called yesterday assured me that I could, that there were other nuerosurgeons in town who could be called into action quickly. It made me feel better. I did not know that. I was under the impression that we had met with all the neurosurgeons in town.

So I do have to take it easy on myself. I have to learn to sit still, watch the Phillies, eat some fresh local peaches and sweet corn, and just relax. I'm not always real great at sitting still. I always want to be doing something. But for at least a couple weeks I have to stay relatively mellow.

One thing I am planning on doing, and am looking forward to, is taking some photos for Alyssa and the Hoke family (Barb's sister, brother-in-law, and nephew). I'll get the strobe lighting out for those shots, and really look to pull of some great, fun shots.

OK, typing while eating a peach just isn't in the best interest of my keyboard. lol