![]() Most of the big stuff is, like the surgery. FYI, radiation and chemo treatments will all be at the West LA facility. For those that don't know, that facility is about 15 miles from our house but via a wretched traffic corridor with no real alternative routes available. Then we headed down to Wilshire Blvd to the "West LA" facility for the radiation planning appointment. So, yeah, we'll see where that ends up leading down the road.Īfter the chemo consultation (at the facility about a mile from our house), we dashed back home, and Biff shaved the beard off. However, it is possible the chemo would help there if that is cancer. We already have another chest scan scheduled for March 1st. They will continue to track the state of his lungs, with possible treatments determined as needed later on. Those may not be cancer at all, and doing biopsies is quite difficult. Three months after the radiation/chemo treatment ends, they will do another full body PET scan to see where we are at that point.Īs it turns out, the chemo treatment probably won't have direct impact on the lung nodules found during routine scans recently. Now they do lower doses every week which usually leads to better outcomes in terms of side effects - and works just as well for the cancer fight! Apparently, for this cancer treatment specifically, they used to do higher doses once every three weeks, which they discovered caused more dramatic side effects. Surprisingly, he doesn't expect Biff will lose his hair during this treatment, although it is possible. ![]() We're to remind them about a rinse to help with that once treatment starts. Mouth sores are also a possible side effect. The doctor is going to order a consultation with a dietician/nutritionist now, so we set up his diet plan in best order right off. since the surgery just being on soft foods). They will be tracking his weight (he's already lost 5 lbs. Although they don't expect this to be permanent, it can take quite some time for those to get back to normal after treatment. Tastebuds and appetite may also be impacted. It can also create issues for the kidneys, thus the inclusion of fluids during the treatment. The doctor said they generally believe that combined radiation and chemo works better than one or the other for this cancer - although if they decide more surgery is the best course of action, things get reorganized, reanalyzed, re-thought.Ĭhemo can cause tingling in his feet and/or ringing in his ears - side effects he's to advise them of immediately. ![]() Again, each session will last around 4 hours. The chemo treatments will include blood tests each time, followed by a round of fluids (to combat potential impact on kidneys), administering anti-nausea medication, infusion of the chemotherapy, and more fluids. ![]() We'll be called after that meeting to discuss what the options are and final plans will be determined then.Įncouraging to know that the cancer hadn't taken over his entire throat, right?!? □ Or possibly surgery and either radiation or chemo but not both!?!Įverything is still proceeding for now as though we'll move into the simultaneous treatment without more surgery, but it won't actually start until January - after the meeting next week. It is possible they will decide another surgery is the best course, without any radiation or chemo. There will be another meeting of all the involved doctors/departments next week Wednesday to further analyze and discuss the options going forward, including the new info from today's CT. Which turns out to mean there is a chance the treatment plan will change. However, we also learned that the surgery results found NO cancer in the left tonsils or the biopsies from the back of the tongue - those were all clear of cancer (source tumor was found in right tonsil). We learned at the chemo consultation that the sessions are planned to be about 4 hours long once a week - to follow that day's radiation treatment and run simultaneously with radiation. What a difference a couple weeks can make! ![]()
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