The Oncologist

On August 26th, Melanie and I went to see Dr. K, my mom's oncologist. He's a very positive man in need of a comb. He must have just pulled off headphones because his hair was sticking up. LOL ...Melanie and i both had the biggest urge to offer him a comb.

We were there for about 2.5 hours. About 30-40 minutes was with the doctor telling us all kinds of things. Just by looking at her, he thinks she is at stage 2. But a PET scan needs to be done to know for sure and you can't perform a PET scan on a pregnant woman. He tells us it's OK to wait until she is 37 weeks pregnant to be induced. But to be ready, because we are going to move quick after the baby is born. They are going to wait about 10 days after delivery to do the PET scan, then probably start chemotherapy a day or 2 later. He tells us he is confident that he can cure her. He felt the lumps on the right side of her neck (left side is lump free) and checks under her arms. He found another lump under her right arm. The PET scan will tell us where all the lumps are, which determines the stage of the cancer.

Next, we went down the hall to see the chemo room. It's not really a room, it's a big open area in the shape of a U with lots of recliner type chairs lining the walls and the nurse's station in the middle. Each recliner has an IV pole and a straight back chair next to it. There are flat panel TVs and individual DVD players. They try to make it comfortable, after all, patients are there for several hours at least. In Melanie's case, she'll be there for 3 hours on chemo days.

Melanie's proposed treatment consists of 4 different kinds of chemo meds given through an IV every 14 days with blood draws 7 days after each treatment. She's going to have 8-16 treatments, which is 4-8 months. After 2 months of treatment, they will do another PET scan to see how the treatment is working. They said she's going to be tired and may lose her hair about 2-3 weeks after the first treatment. They'll give her medicine for nausea so that shouldn't be a problem. But with a newborn, her husband working out of state, an active 3 year old, and getting Catie to/from school....I think it's going to be quite challenging.

I'm going to look for an online calendar so everyone will know her schedule of doctor appointments and chemo days.

Psalm 57:3 - He will send down help from heaven...because of His love and His faithfulness...
and you, our family and firends, are that help.