Friday with Dr. P2

On Friday October 31 (Halloween), I had the fortune of meeting with Dr. P2 the radiation oncologist to have some further discussions and consultations regarding the way forward. Dr. P is a very straight forward person who is willing to discuss the pros & cons of radiation therapy openly. He also has an affinity with me as we both are single (divorced), fathers of 3 kids, and about the same age.

Dr. P2 talked about the few studies regarding people with my type of cancer and that there is no clear cut path to take in the road forward. He spoke about other more common cancers and how they can almost be binned into protocols that are appropriate. However, with stomach/esophageal cancer, things are a bit more grey. There are recent studies that say that there is more success with chemo prior to surgery and then following surgery with chemo & radiation. Some that say other combos of chemo/radiation prior to surgery followed by chemo post surgery is preferred. And many more combinations of chemo, radiation, surgery sequences that can bring confusion to the appropriate way forward. Dr P2 explained the side effects, the amount of radiation, the duration of the treatment, and many more things that come into play. Then he looked at me and mentioned that I need to make the decision as to how I want to go about tackling the post surgery treatment.

Drum roll please!

I have decided that I will go forward with both chemo & radiation. This is in keeping with my approach of trying to do everything I can to beat cancer, and beat it handily. I admit that going through this treatment combo is not something that I am looking forward to. It will be tough and I'll probably feel like kaka again, but I feel I need to do it. It is my responsibility to finish this fight and do everything I can to get better. This is for me, my family (my kids especially), the people that I love, and for all my friends and colleagues that are supporting me through this adventure. I am determined to win this fight!

OK, here's some of the details (I'll try not to be too confusing here). Chemo will consist of 2 drugs instead of 3 as was happening prior to surgery. The 2 drugs are cicplatnum and 5FU (yep Ethel is coming back!). There will be 3 rounds of chemo: one round prior to radiation; one round mid way through radiation; and one round after radiation. Radiation will be administered 5 times a week, once a day. The treatment will be 5 weeks in length. Thus the math says that I will get 25 doses of radiation. The treatment will be aimed primarily at my abdomen area where the tumor used to reside to get rid of residual cancer cells that may have attached themselves to other parts of me. I'm guessing that the belly area may glow in the dark when all is said & done.

So this adventure continues with the chemo/radiation starting up again in the next couple of weeks. As I've said to Lori, Joan, TJ, Dave-o, Pete, Christy, Chris , my mom, and many of my friends, "we'll get through it." Here we go again! Life is Good!