The Team is Ready...

Met with Dr. Courtney Bui (Radiation Oncologist) this past Monday and Dr Agarwala (Medical Oncologist) on Thursday. Really like them both and I don't know how they "rank" Oncologists but, I was told that Dr. Agarwala is number 12 in the nation! He will be heading up the team and here's the game plan:

I will have a total of 33 radiation treatments 5 days a week with weekends off (of course). I will have a total of 3 chemo treatments every 21 days. The first day of the treatments will begin a week from Tuesday 6/2, and will consist of both chemo and radiation. The cocktail for chemo will consist of just one drug called Cisplatin. This is a very powerful drug that has had very good success with treating my type of cancer. In fact, I have been told by ALL of the 3 primary doctors that the cure rate is very high but to get there, it will be a gruelling battle. As most of you know, this type of treatment is cumulative and even when the treatments stop in 7 weeks, it could be months before things get back to anything close to normal,

I've been told that the side effects of the chemo could be kidney toxicity, loss of hearing (high frequencies), ringing of the ears & hair loss (all I gotta worry about is the goatee and the eyebrows). Since I am only scheduled for 3 chemo treatments, the kidney toxicity is rare and to minimize the risks to the kidneys, they will give me 2 hours of "fluids" before 1 hour of chemo, followed up with another 2 hours of "fluids" (yup, that's 5 hours per chemo treatment).

The radiation side effects are dry, peeling and/or raw skin around the neck area, dry mouth, mucositis which are sores that develop inside the mouth, thickening of the saliva, and difficulty swallowing to name a few. Since Dr. Agarwala is nationally recognized, he does quite a few clinical studies. I have opted to be a part of one that he is currently performing that shows promise to minimize the mucositis and thickening of the saliva side effects. This involves an injection Monday through Friday of a drug that has not been FDA approved yet but is in stage 3 of the process. This means that it has been tested on "non-humans" in stage 1 with success, tested on humans in stage 2 with promising results and now in the "fine-tuning" stage with FDA approval expected. This is a "blind" clinical study that has absolutely NO effect on the standard treatment plan that I otherwise would be getting. I have been told that the participants will get either a full dose, 1/2 dose or a placebo.

Before I met with Dr. Agarwala and knew how many chemo treatments I was going to have, I was going to get a port put in. In addition and because of the risk of not being able to swallow during the later stages of treatment, I has also planning on having a feeding (PEG) tube put in. After talking with Dr. Agarwala on Friday, he said my veins look good and since we're only planning on 3 chemo treatments, he didn't think I needed the port. All the doctors pretty much said that they have good non-narcotic drugs available that numb the nerve endings in the throat to help with swallowing and will leave the decision of the PEG tube up to me as well. Just to be on the safe side, I believe I will have it put in next week before treatments start (and while my body is in a non-compromised state). I don't have to use it unless I need to.

This past Friday, I had my mesh face mask formed and fitted which is how they screw you to the table during radiation. I refer to it as my "goalie" mask AND... I got my first tat! It appears to be a little black dot in the center of my chest but if you look at it real close, it reads:

With the help, support and prayers of my family and friends, God above, and my desire to kick this cancer's ass, we'll win this battle!