Weekend of rest done. Weaning starts.

Well, the weekend of rest went well. No side-effects. Everything in the clear.

Radiation
The follow-up meeting with the radiation doctor stated that I am done radiation for this step. The weaning off of the dexamethasone begins Tuesday (tomorrow). It should take about 9 days to wean me off of it. Aggressive weaning as they say I'm still young and should be able to handle it. If I have sever head-ache, then to go back to previous step of the weaning and start again (3 day cycle of 3 cycles of weaning = 9 days, or more if I have to back-track... not bloody likely! I'll tough out a head-ache any day rather than be on this stuff any longer than I have too!!!)

I have an MRI follow-up in 1 month. To look for new cancer growth, and to see the blood vessel health around the previously killed tumor.

Seizure - Drivers License
I've received a referral to a brain doctor (Neurologist?) that will be tracking my Seizure activity (or lack there off) and control my seizure drugs going forwards. This is a requirement if I ever want my driver's license to be re-instated via a medical statement of mental fitness.


Chemo
Tomorrow (Tue) is my lab work and meeting with my Chemo doctor. She will assist me in continuation of the treatment that began and was so rudely interrupted for my liver cancer. While ultimately I want to pursue radiation surgery (CyberKnife) for the liver cancer as well, I need the cancer to remain until we find chemo that works on esophageal cancer that has moved through my blood stream to my liver (and I guess my brain). Without finding a chemotherapy source to kill the microscopic cells, then I'll be doomed to repeatedly get cancer popping up, and eventually it will be in my lungs and bone tissue among other places. This must not happen!

So, the liver cancer stays as a sign that the chemo drug they have picked has any affect at all on this genetic strain of cancer. If the cancer shrinks, then we have a working chemo, and we can then quickly pursue the CyberKnife for the liver cancer.

So, with this method, I can win the WHOLE WAR... not just a few battles. So far, I've won two battles: 1) esophagus, 2) brain. But if I have 500 battles left, and I lose most of them, then the war is lost. My goal is to win all battles, and the war, and to reduce the number of battles to the bare minimum (I have at least 3 battles left, which can all 3 be handled in 1 CyberKnife session, but there could be more... thus the chemotherapy to eradicate the unknown.)

Overall, I feel good to have the brain thing taken care of. I felt so good that last night I ate lots of food and stayed up until 6am (kids get up at 7am). Yes that was dumb... I won't be doing it again. But I was wired and happy so I couldn't sleep anyway.

-- Shane