Today I had my blood counts checked, saw my radiation oncologist, had a wax mask made, ate lunch with a famous person and moved into a condo.  I think I’m exhausted just writing that out.  🙂

My white blood cells are up some, but my red blood cells and platelets are down. This may delay treatment until next week. I’ll get them checked again on Wednesday.

My doctor brought in an expert on making lead face masks for patients.  Apparently making this sort of apparatus is something they don’t do very often anymore.  There are other inner-machine methods to block where the radiation goes, but my physician wants to be extra careful about protecting my eye and vision.  That’s a huge concern to her because of the level of radiation she’ll be using and because she wants to radiate part of my eyelid. She marked my face with a marker and the technician made a wax mold to her specifications that he’ll use to make the lead mask. There will also be some sort of tungsten shield made for my eye.  It is quite a process.

My radiation oncologist also consulted with 3 experts on how best to radiate, and there isn’t a definitive answer – each has a different recommendation . . . electron, photon or proton.  Thankfully, my doctor is going to run different studies to determine what she thinks is best.  There is heavy calculation and thought going in to this.  She has assured me that I will get the very best treatment. It is wonderful to have that assurance from a doctor, especially after 3 surgeries and 3 regimens of chemotherapy.

In other news, Jonathan and I went out for lunch at a British pub.  We chose the patio so that I could avoid germs. After a little while, Jonathan asked if I knew who the man sitting next to us was.  I had no clue.  None.  He seemed so “normal”.  Jonathan said, “It’s Jeff Van Gundy.” As if that would ring a bell, but nothing was rung.  Anyway, I shot a couple of pictures of him.  If you know who he is, you may be impressed that he drove off in a very normal gray Camry – I like that humility.

We were bumped out of our hotel today.  There’s a huge offshore technology conference in town and they are booking all of the rooms.  We were told we might be able to extend our time, but then found out the price went up $100/night, so we checked out.  Meanwhile, a woman we had contacted regarding long-term accommodations said she had a sudden vacancy at one of her condos.  So, now we are in a temporary residence very close to MD Anderson.  We have a full kitchen and laundry, so we are in business.

Tomorrow is my PET scan at 3 pm.  This will show us where the highly active cells are, i.e. cancer.  We anticipate that it will “light up” on my forehead and in the frontal sinus, and we hope that continues to be the only place – it’s a full body scan.

Please pray:

• that my blood counts increase at a good pace
• that the PET scan does not show any new area of concern
• for the planning and decision-making of my medical team
• for the effectiveness of my upcoming treatment
• that my sister is a stem cell match