Brief update

I wanted to put out a brief update, what with a treatment yesterday, and a week to reflect on the results of the recent CT scan.

First, delays in treatment are bad. The timing of the tumor growth and my treatments are pretty tight, in that it seems during the first two weeks of a treatment cycle, my pain levels are reduced, then during the 3rd week, they rise again. Having a 4th week before another treatment allowed my pain to increase still more -- to a level I'd not experienced before. The level of my pain meds was at a level I'd more-or-less gotten used to, but is now again at a level that makes ordinary function difficult. Too tired, too often, to get regular stuff around the house done...much less even consider getting back to work.

And so, given what looks like continued growth in both my liver and my lung, I am making arrangements to return to the Chicago area, to continue treatment under the care of Dr. Mulcahy at Northwestern while in the company of my family and friends. After today speaking with my insurance company, it looks as though I'll be able to take on some sort of "Guest" status in Chicago that allows me to get treatment there as though I were "in-network". At least, that how I understand it works...it would surely make things easier (and cheaper).

I'm feeling pretty good, what with a treatment yesterday. Not so queezy as I am typically, I'm finding myself with energy enough to do a bunch of the stuff necessary while I prepare for a move in a month. One last thing I want to have done here that I really need to push on -- I'd like to pursue radiation on the one large tumor on my right side, the cause of so very much of my pain at the moment. Dr. Meyers (the local radiation oncologist) had mentioned that it could be done quickly and concurrently with chemo, so that, even given the time constraints, it is something we can conceivably do before any move.