Over the past few days, I’ve been overwhelmed with gratitude. Evidently, people have found my blog when Googling for renal cell carcinoma; I’ve had such nice comments, e-mails with explanations, advice, helpful links and general support and good wishes - I’m truly touched that people took the time to e-mail and/or comment. I appreciate it more than I can express.
The latest on my dad: yesterday morning his insurance company approved treating him with Sutent, although his oncologist isn’t going to start it until his appointment next week. Grrr. More than once during this process I’ve had occasion to wonder why, if everyone agrees on the next step, they don’t go ahead and do it already. Lachele says this illustrates the emphasis placed upon early detection: “it’s important to ‘catch it early’ so that the docs have a year or two to fiddle around deciding what to do”.
Alan researched Zometa and learned the following: “Zometa (zoledronic acid) is used to treat hypercalcemia (high levels of blood calcium) that may occur in patients with some types of cancer. It is also used to treat cancer called multiple myeloma (tumors formed by the cells of the bone marrow) or certain types of bone metastases (the spread of cancer).” So it sounds like EXACTLY what Daddy needs and I’m reassured on that point, though I’m still puzzled about his doctor’s office giving me a Zometa pamphlet all about how it helped once your breast cancer (!) metastasized to your bones...*sigh*
I still have some reservations about this oncologist and (mainly) his office, but I’m satisfied, at least for the moment, about the course of treatment. You probably didn’t notice, but there was a brief blogging interruption right there during which I telephoned my dad, who reports that he has not tried any of his protein drinks, does not like red PowerAde, thinks green Gatorade is okay and that blue PowerAde is pretty good. He has agreed to eat some peach cobbler and was, when I telephoned, sitting at the kitchen table taking apart their paper shredder. So, moving toward normalcy. When he starts taking one of the cars apart, we can all breathe a sigh of relief.
Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone! This morning I had a card and a dozen dusky-pink roses (photos to follow) from Alan. Tonight we’re cooking a special dinner together - neither of us were up for the crowds at a restaurant or the fight for a reservation. I got him a HUGE, and by 'huge' I mean 'gargantuan' seasoned rib eye which I’ll serve with rosemary-garlic oven roasted potatoes. For me, Alan is sauteeing shrimp and scallops in a white wine/garlic/shallot sauce which I’ll eat over pasta. We’ll both have salad with lovely vine-ripe tomatoes and garlic bread. Whoa, that’s a lot of garlic, isn’t it? We’ll be fine as we’re both eating it but the rest of you might want to avoid us for a while. Still, bringing things full circle, there is a Chinese study showing that garlic helps prevent stomach cancer, so I’m going to keep that up and just make sure I have plenty of Listerine on hand.
The latest on my dad: yesterday morning his insurance company approved treating him with Sutent, although his oncologist isn’t going to start it until his appointment next week. Grrr. More than once during this process I’ve had occasion to wonder why, if everyone agrees on the next step, they don’t go ahead and do it already. Lachele says this illustrates the emphasis placed upon early detection: “it’s important to ‘catch it early’ so that the docs have a year or two to fiddle around deciding what to do”.
Alan researched Zometa and learned the following: “Zometa (zoledronic acid) is used to treat hypercalcemia (high levels of blood calcium) that may occur in patients with some types of cancer. It is also used to treat cancer called multiple myeloma (tumors formed by the cells of the bone marrow) or certain types of bone metastases (the spread of cancer).” So it sounds like EXACTLY what Daddy needs and I’m reassured on that point, though I’m still puzzled about his doctor’s office giving me a Zometa pamphlet all about how it helped once your breast cancer (!) metastasized to your bones...*sigh*
I still have some reservations about this oncologist and (mainly) his office, but I’m satisfied, at least for the moment, about the course of treatment. You probably didn’t notice, but there was a brief blogging interruption right there during which I telephoned my dad, who reports that he has not tried any of his protein drinks, does not like red PowerAde, thinks green Gatorade is okay and that blue PowerAde is pretty good. He has agreed to eat some peach cobbler and was, when I telephoned, sitting at the kitchen table taking apart their paper shredder. So, moving toward normalcy. When he starts taking one of the cars apart, we can all breathe a sigh of relief.
Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone! This morning I had a card and a dozen dusky-pink roses (photos to follow) from Alan. Tonight we’re cooking a special dinner together - neither of us were up for the crowds at a restaurant or the fight for a reservation. I got him a HUGE, and by 'huge' I mean 'gargantuan' seasoned rib eye which I’ll serve with rosemary-garlic oven roasted potatoes. For me, Alan is sauteeing shrimp and scallops in a white wine/garlic/shallot sauce which I’ll eat over pasta. We’ll both have salad with lovely vine-ripe tomatoes and garlic bread. Whoa, that’s a lot of garlic, isn’t it? We’ll be fine as we’re both eating it but the rest of you might want to avoid us for a while. Still, bringing things full circle, there is a Chinese study showing that garlic helps prevent stomach cancer, so I’m going to keep that up and just make sure I have plenty of Listerine on hand.
1 Comments:
Breath-Asure (now called Mint-Asure, I think) - it'll cure your garlic breath. I know, the advertising seems cheesy and you'd think the product was useless, but it's not.
Happy Valentine's Day. Enjoy your fancy meals!
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Anonymous, at 9:06 PM
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