Eager to get started

Today, I met my radiation oncologist for the first time. I bet being a radiation doctor is pretty hard. I feel fortunate as my doctor is really one of the nicer doctors I have ever met. It will probably make the whole process that little bit easier.

He is classifying my case as stage 4 due to the erosion into the bone at the base of the skull. His treatment plan is for me to initially do 2 to 3 rounds of induction chemo. That will be followed by close to 40 sessions of IMRT radiation treatments concurrent with more chemo.

Tomorrow, I will see my chemo oncologist for the first time.

I'm eager to get started with the chemo. I feel like the tumors on the right side of my neck have gotten much larger in just the last three weeks. The radiation doc says the chemo will start shrinking the tumors leaving less mass for the radiation stages.

Is it everything you dreamed it would be

"So doc, what do you think it is?"

"Carcinoma of the nasopharynx." Nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Today, we got the biopsy results confirming my doctor's suspicion. Dreams of traveling to remote places, dreams of sitting on the rocking chair and watching the kids play, dreams of growing old with my wife, but not in any of my dreams, cancer.