Hi everyone. This morning we had an appointment with Premier Cancer Center (the radiation specialist that Dr. B recommended), and we had a bunch of questions. First and foremost was "this wasn't an option 2 years ago because of the side effects, why is it now?" The bottom line is you want to radiate a big area, the bigger the area the better, but you also want to be very specific because in the area of my cancer are several things that do NOT like radiation and could be greatly affected by radiation.....salivary glands, vocal cords and hearing in the right ear. With that said he thinks he can set the radiation to be below the salivary glands and not affect the hearing, and also thinks that melanoma responds best to BIG amounts of radiation in fewer treatments than we were expecting. So instead of 5 days a week for 5 weeks, it would be twice a week for a total of 5 treatments. I would start with an appointment to get a mesh mask made that is put on my face/head wet, and it dries to a rigid form that is screwed to the table, so I'm in the exact same position for every treatment......anyone claustrophobic???
We mentioned that Dr. F wanted us to talk to the radiation department at UT Southwestern, and he was fine with that, encouraging us to get a second opinion, but thought they would probably agree with him on the course of treatment. I have an appointment with UTSW Jan 2nd, and depending on how that goes, I have a Jan 6th appointment to start the ball rolling with Premier.
On to Top Chef......4 hours until Top Chef comes on. AND I've been asked to send in another audition tape for BBQ Pitmasters. I might have to start a grass roots campaign to get me on the show since I've tried out twice.....I don't think I'm "colorful" enough. Last year two of the contestants had closed caption when they talked because they were so red neck you couldn't understand them! An institutional stock broker living in the burbs of Dallas just isn't a good enough story!!
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