Chemo starts Wednesday!!

 This is my totally awesome husband and Laila, who did our chemo education today. she was sweet and very, very helpful.
Let me back up a bit:
Dr. Lu had talked with the Trios Tumor Board Tuesday, but there was no clear consensus about the treatment, so he contacted Dr. Aye, at Swedish, who took my case to the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance Tumor Board on Friday; that board consists of experts from Swedish, Virginia Mason, Fred Hutch, and U of W. Dr. Aye called me Friday night about 6:00 to explain what they decided, then he and Dr. Lu talked on Saturday, and Dr. Lu and Laila explained/clarified our new plan to us today.

I am going to do 2 rounds of 2 drug chemo. I will have a 4.5 hour infusion on Wednesday and then another in three weeks. At the end of the 6 week period I will have my CT&PET scans repeated. If the tumor has shrunk, I will go to Swedish to remove the left side of my lung. Radiation can make the surgery more risky, so we will do radiation on the center of my chest, where those 2 lymph nodes contained cancer, after the surgery. And probably another round of chemo, just to be sure.

One of the drugs is going to try and make me sick, which we cannot allow it to do that. I can't lose any more weight. The doc is giving me 3 drugs to fight nausea and I am going to have to "cowboy up", like Dave Phillips says, and develop some mental strength. and not let me head make me feel sick.

I also need to each at least 40 grams of protein a day, drink 2-3 liters of water, and get down at least 3 servings of fruits and vegetables. For the very first time in my life a doctor has said "Eat as much as you can, as many calories as you can manage". If you have a good protein shake recipe or a good nutrition bar you would recommend, please let me know. He and Laila said not to worry about how many carbs I take in because my body will use them up fighting the cancer! I so wish chocolate was a carb... sigh

The chemo education was interesting, so I may share more...I will be home from Wednesday through the weekend and probably only work part-time next week. If you have a question, don't hesitate to ask.

Thank you again for all your support. Mark and I are thrilled to finally be getting this started. We know what we need to do and we are going to do everything we can to make a good outcome. We are so very thankful for all that you have done on our behalf to help ensure that happens, too!