Moving on with an Oncologist to Chemotherapy!

We met Bob's oncologist yesterday. He pronounced Bob "as healthy as a horse". And, despite the 2 positive nodes that were found he said that Bob was probably fully cured. However, having chemotherapy that is nowadays fairly low toxicity would improve his chances of being fully clear of cancer by 30 to 35%. So it was a go.

Now, along with a new healer in our lives, Bob has a new (and lower) level of humor to which to aspire (what is the downward word for aspire? Maybe de_spire?) As a technician wrote up Bob's orders and prepared a pharmacy order for him Leon Landau quipped "she's new; you will be her first patient." By then we had his number.

Bob expects to have an IV of a platinum derivative every 2 or 3 weeks (we realized after we left that we weren't sure) for 6 months and instead of a 48 hr infusion by a "take-home box" attached to a shunt, he'll take 5FU by pill. Dr Landau was clear that the efficacy of the 5FU as a pill was equivalent for Bob's needs to taking it parenterally (as in infusion into his vein). The side effects are different in that the pill mostly causes dry skin conditions. The side effect of the IV given at the office should be felt only on the day he gets the IV. Otherwise he should feel OK. One really good thing is that we do not expect large plunges in his white blood cell count, and so his resistance should stay strong.

For me it's good to see him just being his old funny, ornery, loving self. We are both content with all this, and feeling very lucky!