Carole's visit with the Oncologist
I had a chance to speak with Carole tonight about her visit with the Oncologist, who, as it turns out, went to school with our sons in Stone Mountain many years ago. By the way, Carole said she liked him a lot.

So here's the schedule. No report yet on the findings from the lymph nodes, except what we had already learned that they were all cancerous. On Monday she goes for a CT Scan of her brain and a chest xray. Tuesday night she goes to a one-hour class for "radiation therapy (or was it chemotherapy) 101," a sort of introduction to what to expect from her treatment. She'll go back next Thursday for an examination of her liver and a bone marrow scan, for which she'll have to drink some kind of dye that will help to reveal whether the cancer has spread to the bone marrow.

She'll begin a series of 16 chemotherapy treatments soon. She has been advised that she will lose her hair, and she is already making arrangements to obtain a wig. It seems that the hospital also has a wig salon that will help her pick out a good wig to wear after she loses her hair. In fact, they say that they won't wait for the hair to fall out but will instead shave her head so that she can go ahead and begin wearing the wig.

After she has completed the chemotherapy, she'll begin a series of 33 radiation treatments, presumably aimed at the breast area where the lump was removed.

As is obvious, this course of treatment amounts to a very aggressive approach to treatments designed to discover what other areas of her body have become involved, if any, and to treat both the site of the original cancer and the systemic manifestations of the disease. Her spirits are good, and at this stage, she is holding up well under the obvious stress of the realization that she has to deal with a really aggressive and virulent enemy.
- posted by Perry @ 11:54 PM