Damaris and I met today with Dr. Shanthi Marur and Dr. Harry Quon, Medical Oncologist and Radiological Oncologist, respectively, and their professional staff, at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. They went over the results of my biopsies taken on Aug. 12, which determined that both my left tonsil and the area biopsied in the upper posterior area of my nasal cavity (nasopharanx) are cancerous.
Dr. Marur and Dr. Quon told me that treatment will begin with chemical therapy over a six-week period, during which I will receive three medications to kill cancer cells in my tonsils, nasopharanx, neck lymph nodes, and anywhere else in my body to where these cancers might have metastasized (although my PET scan showed no cancer below my collarbones). On day one (Tuesday, Aug. 30) I will receive cisplatin and taxotere. That day and the three subsequent days I will receive a slowly infused dose of 5-FU (Fluorouricil) administered by a small portable pump. The subsequent two weeks I will be allowed to recover from the effects of the medications, before undergoing another week receiving the three medications. A subsequent two-week recovery period will allow evaluation of the effects of the three drugs in reducing the size of my tumors, before initiating a seven-week treatment of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) while receiving cisplatin or carboplatin (based on tolerance to cisplatin during 6-week protocol receiving cisplatin during two weeks). So my entire treatment will begin on Tuesday, Aug. 30, and will run through Friday, Nov. 25, a daunting span of time.
To prepare for my treatment, this Thursday I'll receive an MRI scan and be fitted with a thermoplastic mask that will be used to immobilize my head and shoulders to the table of the linear accelerator that will produce, modulate, and focus the radiation for my treatment. The MRI will be used to program the three-dimensional location of cancerous cells to be irradiated and killed and tissues to preserve by avoiding their irradiation. The same day I'll also have a "port" fitted through the skin of my chest through which the 5-FU will be slowly pumped starting next Tuesday.
Both Dr. Marur and Dr. Quon have very positive and supportive attitudes, attributes shared by their staff. This will be a long road through treatment to cure, made much more tolerable by the positive support from Johns Hopkins specialists. I'm not sure that I could make it without the loving support of Damaris and thoughts and prayers of many friends. The hospitality of Leroy and Flor de Lis Snyder, welcoming us to their home and the use of their daughter Cynthia's car for travel to and from Johns Hopkins during diagnosis, have been amazingly generous.
Perhaps a divine sign that the powers of the Universe are aligning in order to channel positive force to my cure, a 5.9 earthquake shook the Central Atlantic area of the East Coast as I got ready to draft this blog post. The title of Carole King's song came to me, so I inserted them in the title of this blog post, although the rest of the lyrics better describe how I feel about Damaris. I choose to take this natural event as a positive sign, maybe even a transcendental link to Costa Rica, which rattles and shakes much more frequently than this area, as our son Steve and daughter-in-law Pati take care of our house and two dogs in Grecia.
To quote from a good book, the Universe conspires in your favor!
ReplyDeleteIt's going to be a tough trip, but I know you'll make it. Good luck dad!
I always wanted to have one of those masks fitted. They way they stretch the mesh over your face looks cool.