Still undecided?

I got a new Doctor today - I now have a Radiation Oncologist, the delightful Dr. Lampenfield. He wanted to consult with me about radiation, but I think he mostly convinced me that I could make my decision regarding treatment now - why wait another month when nothing is really going to change for the better before that?

And one of the first things out of his mouth is that the his goal of radiation treatment for me is curative. So radiation is in. You get tattoos and everything. He pretty much relieved or minimized almost all of my fears. There is risk of some number of long term side affects, but they work real hard to stay below the level of exposure that raises that risk. And lots of people get by with only one good kidney anyway. What a commitment - 45 minutes a day for 6 weeks? Yikes.

The only question is whether to have chemo concurrently. And why not - in for a penny in for a pound. Running chemo at the same time increases the toxicity of each, but isn't that kind of the goal? And those effects should still fade away once the treatment is done.

Now, I had gemcitabine after my whipple. Dr. Tempero feels that gemcitabine works for me. But most of the available information about use of chemo with radiation is about a chemo called 5FU. Radiation Dr. says I should discuss it with Chemo Kaufman, but I'm pretty sure Kaufman will leave it up to me anyway. So which do I choose? There's a day or two of research to do about which way to go, although sometimes it feels like a coin toss would be just as good.

And I want to spend a little more energy looking into the availability of clinical trials. But I've got a couple weeks I guess. If I call Lampenfield tomorrow to go with the radiation, it's still 2 weeks before the first shot gets taken. Plenty of time for everything.

Here's to moving forward.