Schedule Updates

This morning we met with Dr. Mary Ann Rose, Professor and Medical Director of UC San Diego Radiation Oncology.  She spent over an hour with us, going over the various procedures and timing.  Now that I’ll be starting chemo on December 9 (just got off the phone with the office), I won’t be starting radiation until mid-April.  So we’ll be going over most of this again at that time.  The chemo will run until mid-March, and then I get 3-4 weeks off to recover before starting 6 weeks of radiation, which should finish by the end of May.

December 10 – Dye injection at 12pm, out to lunch, 2pm bone scan.  This is to ensure the breast cancer hasn’t spread to the bones (apparently breast cancer’s next favorite place to hide out).

December 11 – 3pm Chemo Class

December 12 – after a morning at the radio station, we’ll be meeting friends to go to Disneyland for a screening of the new movie, Saving Mr. Banks which is the story of how the movie Mary Poppins was made.  Mr. Banks is the father of the children taken care of by Mary Poppins, the original movie is really about his transformation from a curmudgeon to a warm and open family-man.   Walt Disney is played by Tom Hanks.  P.L. Travers was the author of the Mary Poppins books and is played by Emma Thompson.

 December 16 – 9am Chemotherapy infusion (will take about 4 hours, prep delivered by IV).

December 17 – 11:30am Chemotherapy injection (will take about 30 minutes).

December 17 – 2:40pm Dermatologist to check suspicious moles for skin cancer.

December 24 – 10:30am Dr. Subramanian (chemo check-up & blood work).

December 26 – 8pm MRI of abdomen for cyst on right kidney.

Now I need to bone up on chemotherapy procedures, remedies, supplements and diets.  Stuff I hadn’t paid much attention to earlier since chemo hadn’t been part of the original treatment plan.  It’s kind of amazing how much time this all takes.  Once we get into January, things should settle down some because the extra tests will be done.  As I understand it, there will be a chemo injection every 3 weeks, preceded by infusion the day before, and a doctor visit with blood work about 8 days after the injection; for a total of 4 injections given over 12 weeks.