Get the laser started.

Since the last post I have had 2 appointments.  On Tuesday this week I met with my General Surgeon who performed my Hernia repair.   He looked at my incision and said it looked good.  We talked about many things including what the mesh suture was actually and also we discussed how much time for healing was a good balance between his normal request and that for a person livng with cancer and needing treatment.  We decided the original 6 weeks he requested was a fair request.  This means he would like no less than 6 weeks before and treatment to allow full healing as treatment would prevent my body from healing.  At the conclusion of the appointment he stated if I needed him for anything to be sure to reach out.  

Today I had a consult with another Radiation Dr..  As I mentioned before I expected a meeting similar if not the same as the last.  Today seemed to go very different in many respects.  The doctor went over my case from 10 years ago all the way through to today and then asked what we knew about radition after having met her coworker in March.  We encouraged her to repeat anything he might have told us.  (Honestly I was in the March appointment with a different frame of mind and not really knowing what treatment I wanted to pursue.  As of today I am confident the option of another surgery is not an option and we need to prceed with Tumor Board's recommendation.)  She clearly talked about the process of radiation and explained it would be roughly 30 treatments which would end up being 5 - 6 weeks consisting of 5 days a week.  We asked questions like, Will it impact my daily life? Can I go in the sun?  Do I need to stay away from young children?  When we asked if there was anything we weren't asking she said,"I think you are asking all the right questions".   The answers to the two following questions are yes,   The treatment is an internal treatment versus an external radiation and therefore I am safe  to be aound young children and in the sun.  She also shared, she would not recommend this treatment if she was not confident it would work for me.  We both left the appointment feeling good about the doctor and about the process.  As it stands we need to make some decisions.  1.  Where would we want to have treatment.  (Ill explain this in a minute)  2. What time of day would we want the treatment to be.  As for the location,  she works in both Grand Rapids and Holland, and for several reasons but mainly if there is a need for Leah to have to drive I can have treatment in the Holland which would make it easier for her to be in that location.  I will  need to decide in the next couple of days as to where I want to continue treatment in order to continue with the current timeline.   They will want you to have your Mapping CT scan done in the same location as your treatment.  The same day as the CT they do education for the treatment so that will happen

What I do know is my treatment will start Tuesday May 28.  

We have not fully decided on a location or time yet.  I have an appointment with my Oncologist Monday  Morning during which we'll discuss the oral chemo I'll be geting along with the radiation treament.  After that appointment we'll call my Radiation doctor's office to confirm location and time of day to proceed with treatment.

Stay tuned for another post next week.

~Kent

A note from Leah...  Kent has been amazing during this whole process.  I am so proud of him.  The days of Surgery, Chemo treaments, Doctors apointments, tests, pokes he has remained calm and rallied through everything.  He amazes us, his family.  Everything any medical professional has asked he has done.  We are thankful for all of you our prayer warriors who have prayed for him as he has gone though it all. 

During this Month of May while Kent has some healing time we are thankful Lydia will be home and will be able to share some family time before she leaves for her internship at Camp Geneva on May 29 as a Camp Counselor and Kent starts treatment one day before Lydia leaves. 

Again Stay tuned for further news as it becomes avalible to us....