January 30, 2024
Today, David saw Dr. Wa to discuss radiation following the liver resection surgery. Personable and enthusiastic as ever, Dr. Wa agreed that we are on the right path. He said once chemotherapy becomes less effective it is a good time to hit the cancer with a new modality. The rationale being it isn’t ready for what is coming. He said we will proceed with 30 treatments (Monday-Friday for 6 weeks). The hope is that this plan will essentially kill the rectal tumor getting a “complete response” and thus making colon surgery unnecessary. David has apprehension about that prospect only because he has wanted this tumor out for so long. And it is easy for us to think why not just get it out? And apparently that is a good plan when there is no mets (metastasis) and a person is older when diagnosed. In many cases, surgery isn’t ideal for a younger person who could be facing an ostomy and other less than ideal things. Regardless, David acknowledges that this is how he feels today. It is difficult for us to envision a day where they may say “no evidence of cancer” because that hasn’t been our experience through all of this so far. But, just as they see less than ideal outcomes, they see positive results and there are protocols in place because they have worked. There are risks and not so nice side effects of course. Those are easy to Google and easy to become concerned about. We have to look at the positives here…those best outcomes that we know are possible.
Dr. Wa decided he wanted to go ahead have David marked up for radiation and asked us to go have lunch and come back by the office. David got suited up in his Pooh Bear costume and received the sharpie marks where the radiation will be targeted in his colon. To our surprise, Dr. Wa said he is ready to start radiation as soon as a week following the liver surgery as long as David feels up riding there and getting on the table. Of course we are grateful for the opportunity to get started as soon as possible.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in Atlanta trying to peep out a hotel for us to stay on Thursday night and for me to go back and forth to shower and have a change of clothes. Not a lot of options near there that aren’t sketchy areas and the traffic was absolutely horrible downtown. David and I have both said that sometimes, we think we could live in the big city until we visit on days like today and then remember…Nope. Not for us.