Decision made

We met today with Dr. William, fresh from his two week vacation. He articulated very well where we are in terms of my tumor and the options available to me. He said I was offered the experimental protocol of Zactima because they felt it would offer great research value since my tumor was so small and that they rarely see one this size. The Erbitux was still an option but all the doctors involved felt that I would respond very well to Radiation alone. Dr. William also felt that even though they did not have enough tissue to confirm the presence of the HPV virus, he felt the tumor manifested all the signs of it being there. When all the words were spoken, the body language signs read, and every nuance analyzed, I decided to go with Radiation, alone. He said he felt this was a good decision, that Dr. Weber had no problem with this as a stand alone treatment, and we of course knew that Dr. Beadle, the Radiologist felt it was enough. Wheeew.

I then proceeded to ask him about my new problem of hair loss (like I needed this) and he said that it was entirely due to stress and that I had no test(s) that would mitigate this loss. [I know that more will come later and the only person that will be more upset than me will be Ted, my barber]

My dance card at MDA is really filling up rapidly. I have to check the appointment schedule every day (on line) because appointments are constantly being added. In addition to the regular Radiology treatments which will start next week, I also have appointments with my Dental oncologist, a gastroenterologist, a speech therapist, a Nutritionist and the ever important bowel management class. I could certainly make a few scatological comments but I shall refrain.

During my weigh-in I found that I didn't gain any weight so now I'm going to eat a cookie.