Interesting news... And a new look!

What a difference a couple weeks can make!

Okay. Interesting day. We learned at the chemo consultation that the sessions are planned to be about 4 hours long once a week - to follow that day's radiation treatment and run simultaneously with radiation.

However, we also learned that the surgery results found NO cancer in the left tonsils or the biopsies from the back of the tongue - those were all clear of cancer (source tumor was found in right tonsil). Which turns out to mean there is a chance the treatment plan will change. 

There will be another meeting of all the involved doctors/departments next week Wednesday to further analyze and discuss the options going forward, including the new info from today's CT. It is possible they will decide another surgery is the best course, without any radiation or chemo. Or possibly surgery and either radiation or chemo but not both!?! 

Everything is still proceeding for now as though we'll move into the simultaneous treatment without more surgery, but it won't actually start until January - after the meeting next week. We'll be called after that meeting to discuss what the options are and final plans will be determined then.

Encouraging to know that the cancer hadn't taken over his entire throat, right?!? 🤪

The chemo treatments will include blood tests each time, followed by a round of fluids (to combat potential impact on kidneys), administering anti-nausea medication, infusion of the chemotherapy, and more fluids. Again, each session will last around 4 hours.

The doctor said they generally believe that combined radiation and chemo works better than one or the other for this cancer - although if they decide more surgery is the best course of action, things get reorganized, reanalyzed, re-thought... 

Chemo can cause tingling in his feet and/or ringing in his ears - side effects he's to advise them of immediately. It can also create issues for the kidneys, thus the inclusion of fluids during the treatment.

Tastebuds and appetite may also be impacted. Although they don't expect this to be permanent, it can take quite some time for those to get back to normal after treatment. They will be tracking his weight (he's already lost 5 lbs. since the surgery just being on soft foods). The doctor is going to order a consultation with a dietician/nutritionist now, so we set up his diet plan in best order right off.

Mouth sores are also a possible side effect. We're to remind them about a rinse to help with that once treatment starts.

Surprisingly, he doesn't expect Biff will lose his hair during this treatment, although it is possible. Apparently, for this cancer treatment specifically, they used to do higher doses once every three weeks, which they discovered caused more dramatic side effects. Now they do lower doses every week which usually leads to better outcomes in terms of side effects - and works just as well for the cancer fight!

Three months after the radiation/chemo treatment ends, they will do another full body PET scan to see where we are at that point.

As it turns out, the chemo treatment probably won't have direct impact on the lung nodules found during routine scans recently. Those may not be cancer at all, and doing biopsies is quite difficult. They will continue to track the state of his lungs, with possible treatments determined as needed later on. We already have another chest scan scheduled for March 1st. However, it is possible the chemo would help there if that is cancer... So, yeah, we'll see where that ends up leading down the road.

After the chemo consultation (at the facility about a mile from our house), we dashed back home, and Biff shaved the beard off. Then we headed down to Wilshire Blvd to the "West LA" facility for the radiation planning appointment. For those that don't know, that facility is about 15 miles from our house but via a wretched traffic corridor with no real alternative routes available. FYI, radiation and chemo treatments will all be at the West LA facility. Most of the big stuff is, like the surgery.

They did a mold of his face to create a mask he'll wear during radiation treatments. Then they did a new CT scan - which will be a big part of the determination for the final treatment plan. Again, we'll be called about the options for treatment determined next week at the Wednesday meeting of all the doctors/departments working on Biff's case. Love the integrated care!!!

All in all, it was a good day. Started out feeling overwhelmed and anxious, but we got good news. And, as freaked out as Biff was to shave the beard after all these years, he looks great. He was so sure he'd look older, but not even! The first thing the Radiation Oncologist said when he saw him without the beard was that he looked a lot younger!!

There is some swelling at the site of the original cyst Biff found under his beard (on the right side - near that "primary source" tonsil), and some light bruising at the base of his neck - presumably from the surgery! Duh! Biff spent I-don't-know-how-much time trying to wash those bruises away before I asked what he was doing... Poor guy.

But, damn, check out those unobstructed dimples! I remember this cutie!!! 💕💕💕