May 12 ... Options, options, options

Yesterday was very busy and informative. Met with a radiation oncologist at UNMH and found out everything we wanted to know (plus some) about tomotherapy.

First, he agrees that surgery is still the best bet. And strongly agreed with the trip to Houston to talk to folks there and see if I can find a surgeon who will work on me.

That being said, we found out some very good news about tomotherapy. Although we have heard over and over, and read many times, that kidney cancer is specifically resistant to radiation, he says "anything can be killed if you hit it hard enough".!! The problem with kidney cancer is that it takes more radiation to kill it than other types of cancer and it typically occurs in areas where there are other vital organs that would be too damaged by the radiation it takes to kill the cancer.

But in my case ... the tumors are not close to the small intestine and bowel, which means they can hit them with more radiation and tomotherapy is a much more focused delivery of the radiation, so the damage to surrounding tissue is much less. This means they can hit them with plenty of radiation without killing the surrounding vital organs (and me!). He gives tomotherapy a 50% chance of killing the tumors off completely! That's VERY different that what we have understood in the past. It's good to talk with an expert.

He described the therapy ... ideally 20 sessions, 20-30 mins each, once a day Mon-Fri. So that's 4 weeks of radiation therapy. Major side effects are nausea and fatigue. He could be ready to start whenever we are, but encouraged the visit to Houston, since this is slow-growing and I have some time to decide.

Then we went upstairs to the oncologist's office. I have been talking with his office manager about the referrals to MD Anderson and a surgeon here. Finally caught her (Kelly) face to face. She is very nice and extremely helpful. She went and tracked down Dr. Lee to find out that my e-mails to him had landed in his spam folder (go figure). So she is arranging the appointment with the local surgeon. She also called MD Anderson right then to find out that, since I am a former patient, with a medical record number, I can call and get my own appointment. It was after 5PM in Houston by the time we got home, so I will be calling them first thing Monday morning.

I feel so much better. We are moving along the data gathering path and seem to have some options that hold out a little hope.