monday july 20

here we go. radiation begins. guess you can say we're ready but.... there's that letter that came on saturday that threw us until we heard more about it today. the letter was one of those form letters.... it said mom has an appt this friday with so and so doctor at whatever time.

HUH? who's this doc and why do we need an appt with him?!

well.... i can't complain that they didn't try to help answer our question. a couple people called me back and a couple of people at the hospital tried to find out. essentially all we found out was this was a chemo doc. so, we spent most of the day sick to our stomach. awesome.

the phone rang just as i was swinging out the door for youngest son's college appt. i saw it was the hospital so i picked it up while son's face drained all it's color. i know, i know.... we have to go. but i HAVE to get this!

it was one of our prior nurses on the phone who had heard we were asking questions about an appt... man-- i love this woman! she saw us at the hospital today but missed us before we left. so she called letting us know about the chemo doc. i guess the normal protocol with cancer patients is to see both a radiation doc and a chemo doc. but because no one has ever mentioned chemo to us throughout this whole thing we felt like something slipped thru the cracks.

more than that tho, we felt deceived. it was horrible! mom's ready for rad. all prepared and good to go. then...... we might also have chemo?? well, what the heck?! why weren't we told?

anyway, the butt of it is that protocol. all patients see both rad and chemo docs, but you don't necessarily have both treatments. it's a case by case basis. the chemo department is simply 2 weeks behind in their appointments. ohhhhhh! ok then.

so will mom also have chemo? god i hope not. but we'll go to the appt and find out.

i dunno if i'd say it was a good day. but son got his pic taken for his ID, his classes scheduled and his dorm contract signed. and, we got our form letter question answered. our stomachs have recovered from the shock of potential chemo, but.... we're better than we were at 3pm.