Hi all! I hope you all have had a wonderful week!
Uncle John flew in Tuesday night just in time for...you guessed it...a round of golf on Wednesday. They had a great time eating hot dogs and playing with a Scottish couple.
Wednesday morning we had an appointment (well apparently we didn't, they couldn't find it) to get Dad's blood drawn and to meet with Dr. K again. Meeting with Dr. K went well since we got to ask our million "what's next" questions. He let us know that he will be going on a two week vacation (lucky) to Germany in the next few weeks so we will meet again in four weeks to rescan. The scan will only take a few hours to process so we will be able to know that day what the status of the tumor is and where we go from here. Dr. K explained Dad will most likely receive a maintenance chemo, which is basically just continuing a chemo schedule every 3 weeks with 2/3 of the chemo drugs (avastin and alitma...no cisplatin). We of course asked about radiation and clinical trials, which Dr. K said were options but chemo will give the best results. He told us that his patients had only 6 months to live and with this treatment plan they lived a year in a half. Haha this was where the language barrier clearly caused a few upset stomachs since he didn't mean that is how long Dad has, just that his plan gives great results. We are still laughing about it and how white Dad's face got!
Yesterday was Dad's "last" chemo, and by last we mean last chemo of the four cycle chemo plan! Last time we were late, so we made sure we showed up early. By early I mean we showed up before the office staff...you can never be too early right? Besides, it gave us plenty of time for puzzles! Our chemo nurse was Kristine from last time and I can't even explain to you how great she is, we were laughing from the minute we arrived! Everything went smoothly except the potassium hydration bag really hurt Dad's vein so he had to switch arms which was quick with Kristine's help! Even with Dad's vein hurting so much he still had a huge smile on which is so contagious!
The weather was also GORGEOUS yesterday so we ate lunch on one of the two patios of the infusion floor. We had a great view of the freeway, listened to music fit for a meditation garden, and watched three cops and a woman chase a cat for 10 minutes...cheap entertainment...
We had asked Dr. K what the pain in Dad's chest was, since it only lasts 24-48 hours after chemo. He didn't know, but we asked Kristine and she was able to explain that it is most likely the tumor shrinking! She explained that each of the three chemo's does something to the tumor...one "pushes" on the tumor from the outside, one around the tumor and one that targets inside the tumor all to shrink the cells. That was really cool to hear and have explained because I don't think we were ever given an explanation of HOW the chemo works! COOL! We ended extremely early (1:30pm) in comparison to the previous treatments, which was great because this one was pretty exhausting for Dad. We were also so glad to see our friends Ed and Linda! Linda has one more treatment to go so we will miss her in three weeks, but I am sure we will be seeing them soon! (PS Linda if you read this...I need the recipe for those cookies, they were amazing!!! Thank you again!!)
Today Dad and Uncle John played another round of golf (I am thinking about moving the two of them into the pro shop at the course) and tonight we are celebrating Dad's 58th birthday! Going through something like this makes you so grateful for each birthday, each moment spent together, and all of the memories in between. Give all your loved ones lots of love today, and everyday because they deserve it! Please keep Dad (and all of those battling cancer) in your prayers for a strong recovery and beautiful scans in 4 weeks! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
