On Tuesday Juan finished his second round of chemo and was unhooked from his "continuous infusion" pump. Today we met with his radiologist and the surgeon, and tomorrow we will be meeting with his oncologist.
Unfortunately, the second round of chemo didn't seem to be particularly effective. The tumor appears to be about the same size as after the first round. Bummer. At least the second round of chemo was kinder (in regard to side-effects) than the first.
As usual, we were told that there were a number of paths along which we might proceed; and that the three doctors need to have another pow-wow first. I don't know why they don't just schedule for us to have meetings with them AFTER they pow-wow. However, by the time we left the surgeon's office he seemed to suggest he would be advocating for the following.
1. 2 weeks of rest before starting anything else
2. a 2-3 week trial of the radiation-chemo combination
3. another CT/PET scan to see if the radiation-chemo is helping
4.
* * a) if it is helping, continue until a total of 5 weeks has been completed
* * b) if it is NOT helping, quit the radiation-chemo
6. recover from radiation
7. perform surgery
As usual, we're playing the waiting game. More info to come tomorrow and the official plan should be solidified over the next several days.
