Our day today began with some trepidation and ended on a positive note.
This morning Clint had his first appointment with a radiology oncologist at Princess Margaret. We were initially a little put off by the fact that we were sent to the GI (gastro intestinal) department and wanted to make sure that they knew we were there for the brain!
After being reassured of that, we were seen by a lovely Aussie doctor with heaps of knowledge and a great bedside manner. She was later joined by another doctor and they told us that the brain stuff is considered small at this time and since there are no symptoms from the tumours, a choice is often made to leave them alone until symptoms do appear. However, the advice was that very often there are cells that are too small to show up in scans, which can become greater problems later.
The choices were to do an all-brain radiation which covers the tumors and the hidden ones, or just target the visible ones. They suggested the all brain version for Clint.
They didn’t want to do radiation at the same time as the chemo infusion, so it was felt we could wait for a few weeks until after the next infusion. They must have sensed that we wanted to get started with treatment (in fact Clint asked “Can we start tomorrow?”) so after making a few phone calls, set Clint’s sessions for 5 consecutive days starting on Monday May 31.
They made a head mask today (this guides the machine where to direct the radiation) so all will be ready for Monday’s treatment. Each treatment is about 15 minutes long and there are few side effects expected except hair loss.
They will do another brain scan at the end of June to see how effective the treatment has been.
Clint has decided that his positive emblem will be a full moon (which is tonight) and a hummingbird (which we were excited to see on our deck today!)
We are looking for very fine cotton-almost gauzy long sleeved shirts for Clint. We will look in Little India in the next few days, but if you have seen any around Toronto, please let us know.
“Today was a good day” - this has become our mantra!