Let the Healing Begin!

We met with Dr. Wong, our oncologist, today.  It was mostly good news and we left feeling very relieved and energized.  The tumors in his lungs (including on the lymph nodes) responded well to radiation and shrunk noticeably.  The tumors in each of his adrenal glands were not included in the radiation so, as we had expected, they grew a little bit.

Jim's pain management is going much better. He will be weaning off the morphine and just taking vidodin as needed.  His weight seems to be holding, so I just need to keep making his milkshakes!

The good news is we will be starting chemo ASAP. We are expecting a call from the onco nurse setting up our first dose for Friday!  He will be on a mixture of Carboplatin and Alimta once every three weeks, for about 6 cycles. Then he will be on a maintenance regime of Alimta.  We will try to have his treatment on Fridays or Thursdays so I can be with him (once I go back to school) on the few days after each treatment, and he will have the weekends to recuperate.

After a week goes by, doc and Jim will decide if/when he can go back to work. We are thinking he will go back part time.  If he can start back as early as Aug. 1 we can avoid shifting benefits to COBRA, which would be great.  We'll be negotiating with his HR person tomorrow and she has been great through all of this.  Jim is really looking forward to being back at work! Though his honey do list still has some items on it...

All in all, emotions are high and expectations are good.  Jim is in a good place and we can finally start moving forward with treatment again.

Thank you to my big-hearted sister Sharon for the bracelets! We are in this together and we so appreciate everyone's love, prayers and support!