Treatment Begins Tuesday, October 16

Before I get to the medical stuff, let me wish everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving. Jeanette and I spent the weekend up in Harriston and joined her parents, Uncle Henry, and Aunt Dorothy for a feast of turkey with all the fixings. We also fit in more visiting time with Mike, Krystal, and baby MacKenzie. Here, at last, is a picture of the little cutie:


Despite the freakishly hot weather it felt like a good ol' fashioned Thanksgiving. I was particularly thankful for being able to taste turkey, 'cause who knows when I'll experience that again...

...which leads me to today's cancer treatment news. Jeanette and I met with medical oncologist Dr. Eric Chen to discuss my upcoming chemotherapy. Dr. Chen confirmed the treatment that Dr. O'Sullivan had predicted: three doses of chemo administered at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the 6 1/2 weeks of radiation.


The chemo drug, called Cisplatin (SIS-pla-tin), is a clear liquid that will be administered to my bloodstream via an intravenous line. These sessions will take between 30 minutes and 2 hours and they'll keep me overnight each time to deal with the nausea, to do each other's hair, and to talk about boys.

At today's appointment, they didn't yet know the start date of my radiation treatment. By the time we arrived home from work,however, there was a message on the machine from Dr. O'Sullivan's office confirming that treatment will begin at 9:15 AM on Tuesday, October 16. The countdown is on!

We go back to PMH tomorrow afternoon for another appointment with Dr. O'Sullivan to further review the details of what's a-coming.