Day 147, Year 11: Exhausted
Date: Thursday, March 17, 2016
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Hi Temp 60’s F
Location: At Home in Evergreen Preserve, Lowell, MA
I used to say “Home is where the heart is.” But these days I say, “Home is where my body is tonight!” This morning we were with the Goldpebbles discovering that leprechauns had visited during the night. Tonight we are back at the condo in Lowell—no leprechauns here! We left the Cape this morning and drove north to have lunch with my niece Lynn at her new residence (just a few miles south of Lowell). She lives in a complex called Summer Place. Residents can take advantage of three meals a day that are served restaurant-style and we had a great corned beef and cabbage lunch to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Thank you, Lynn. Mark and I then drove back to Boston for a 3:30 pm appointment with his oncologist, Dr. Kwak, and radiation oncologist, Dr. Hong. Unfortunately there is still no word from the trial sponsor, Novartis, about Mark’s eligibility for the trial. In the meantime, Mark’s cancer is growing at a fast rate. The dilemma is that if he is given any chemotherapy or radiation at this point and then finds out that he is eligible for the trial, he would have to stop the chemo and radiation and wait a full month before entering the trial. But something needs to be done as soon as possible to reduce the size of the tumors to give him some pain relief. The plan we came up with today is to meet again next Wednesday and hope that we know about his eligibility for the trial by that time. If he is eligible, hopefully the trial treatment can begin immediately. If he is not eligible, he will start a second round of a chemo treatment he has had before plus two weeks of daily (5 days a week) targeted radiation. That will mean daily trips to Boston. At this point I think both of us are mentally and physically exhausted and need to just chill out and think about nothing for a day or two.
PS: I have to apologize again to all of you that have written emails to us in the past couple of weeks. I still have not had a chance to get back to you, but just know how much we appreciate your suggestions and well wishes.
