Finally met Dr. T Chen

Cyn had an MRI on the abdomen today so they could take a look at the adrenal gland. She also had her first simulation appointment at radiology today, they do that to target the radiation area and let her know what to expect. She will start radiation on Monday. Joe and Clare and I were in the room when Dr. Chen came in, and Cyn arrived back from the MRI shortly after.

Dr. Chen says they’ve determined that surgery is not an option because the tumor in her lung is very small, but there are many cancer cells all around the center of the chest. Surgery would not be as affective as treating all those cells (the mass) with radiation and chemotherapy. Cyn is receiving the food tube with no problem (it looks like very pureed cream of wheat), so they are confident that they are increasing her caloric intake which will help increase her strength. Dr. Chen has recommended Chemo begin on Tuesday (after the initial radiation treatment), and she will have low doses of chemo weekly, and radiation 5 days a week for about 5-6 weeks. Normally they do high doses of chemo every 6 weeks, but he feels the radiation therapy will be more effective if they combine it with weekly low dose of chemo.

Dr. Chen said that her cancer is in Stage 3b, treatable but advanced. He says it was very lucky that they did that initial xray for the gurd, otherwise they would have never noticed the tumor and thus the cancer cells that are all in the center of her chest area. He says her lungs are very healthy and strong, and everyone on the oncology council (a group of specialists that review unusual cases) were perplexed as to why the cells were all around the center area when the tumor in her left lobe is so small.

So. We really don’t know what her prognosis is until she goes through treatment. It’s definitely not a great prognosis right now, but we really won’t know until the treatment starts. She will need strength from all of us. She doesn’t really mind having family around she says, we should be careful of too many other than family visitors, as she tires easily. (ie;, one at a time and maybe we should monitor to make sure a bunch of people don’t all visit at once?) She said this morning, “ I really like the peace and quiet”... So less stress is better for her.