Oncology mumbo jumbo

without treatment
90 out of 100 people are alive 5 years later
10 out of 100 die from cancer

with treatment
92 out of 100 are alive 5 years plus....
8 out of 100 die from cancer

Wow. I had not really thought about it in terms like that. I was pretty upset after talking to the oncologist.....

So what Scott needs to decide is "Is he comfortable with that 10%?" Dr Felice said if it were his brother, he wouldn't be. That he would want to make sure every stone is turned and we do everything b/c he could be part of that 2 that are saved by it if he happens to be in that group. So Scott needs to decide by tomorrow really... and the Dr said you can hear your families thoughts but in the end its up to him - it is his life we are talking about.

So, he is going to go ahead and do it. They will put a port in him and then he will go in every 2 weeks for treatment. The treatment is a 6 month course. Standard treatment for colon cancer is FOLFOX4 Based. It's so clinical isn't it? Say he goes in on a Monday...he will go in for a few hours to get chemo, and then they send him home with a 2 day pack of chemo attached to him by his port - or "port-a-cath" inserted in your upper chest wall (the space between your collarbone and your breast) to make chemotherapy easier and more comfortable. It is a simple, same-day procedure that doesn't require general anesthesia. The port is about the size of a quarter, only thicker, and will show only as a bump underneath the skin. He would come back on Weds to have it removed and then does it all over again 2 weeks later. He will receive two of the drugs over a five-hour period in the medical facility, and the third drug is in a pump that resembles a video cassette that he can carry around with him. It's attached to the port and he will take that drug over a 48-hour period.


We will talk to the dr tomorrow to figure out when we start.

Dr Felice mentioned there is a study going on at Georgetown for stage 2, t3 tumors that he was going to call about to see if it was still open and see if Scotty qualifies. They add one other med to the FOLFOX4 Based therapy - so Scott would not get less than standard treatment but may even be part of the group that gets the extra med. We should know this week more about that.

Some updates we got from the oncologist: they actually took out 45 lymph nodes (the rest were found in the fatty tissue surrounding the colon) and none showed any cancer cells. The tumor was moderately differentiated and mildly mucuosy. All of those are good. Scotty is still anemic - about 4 pints too low.

Dr Anthony Felice is from Brooklyn. He is very easy to talk to. He spent 2 hours with us yesterday talking us through it all and making sure we understood. He is also a magician so he spent 30 mins of that 2 hours doing card tricks with us. He was so good, he even did one where the marked card showed up folded in his shoe. I was frustratedly impressed with the tricks.

I am very overwhelmed by it all and I find this all scarier than the surgery. This week has been tough. Scotty somehow went back to work only to leave the same day at4p with a fever of over 100. The drs think its just a bug but he was out of commission for the past 2 days. Hannah is super tired by school and our new routine needs some getting used to.

But we will get through it like we always do. I think this is just the beginning of this journey...