Radiation update, 10/26/2007

I have now completed 4 of my scheduled 20 radiation treatments. So far, I'm feeling nothing at all -- good or bad. No reduction in my pain, but no evidence of side effects, either. They say I shouldn't expect much by way of pain reduction until I've completed at least 2 weeks of treatments, so I suppose patience, as it often is, is the word of the day.

In the meantime, I have not been back to work in the last two weeks. My pains reached a point where the prescribed medications were leaving me in a poor state for driving, much less for performing my work at any reasonable level. The good news here is that the benefits package at the lab is excellent, and I can claim a "short term disability" that will allow me to continue getting paid for a decent while. I can hope to return to work before this benefit is exhausted.

While I don't know exactly what comes next after the radiation, I am making some moves to help in the determination. We have pretty much exhausted the expertise available here in Knoxville, so I have set up an appointment for a consultation with my oncologist at Northwestern, Dr. Mulcahy. I will see her on the Monday after Thanksgiving (11/26/2007). My hope at that time is to convince her that (1) perhaps we can use the carboplatin/taxol combo one more time to control my cancer outside the liver while (2) using Theraspheres to treat my tumors in the liver. Unless she's got better ideas. It certainly seemed that this treatment was working everywhere outside the liver through the summer -- we changed only as we saw the liver tumors growing.

I suppose there's no demand for updates till I notice something -- here's hoping as soon as next week. All the best to all till then...