Finally Some Info.

So... we found out in an interesting manner what UCH's plan of attack is. After my meeting with Dr. Yamini on Monday, I was fully expecting to hear back from Dr. Vokes concerning his plan of attack. I didn't hear anything until late on Wednesday night when I received a phone call from Dr. Yamini's nurse. She wanted me to come to Chicago for another appointment on Thursday. When I told her it was simply too late of notice (she called me at close to 5:00 PM on Wednesday) She responded by telling me that it was really essential that I come because they wanted me to book a hotel room and they were planning to do a biopsy of my brain on Friday morning.

I laughed and told her there was no way they were biopsying my brain on Friday morning when Dr. Yamini didn't even think he was the surgeon who should be handling my case on Monday. Perhaps brain biopsies are a daily procedure for them, but not for the patient.

After turning down that appointment, I finally started getting some phone calls from Dr. Vokes people. Dr. Chung, his assistant called to share my PET results with me and explained that they really needed the biopsy because there was no other way to determine if the activity showing up on the PET Scan is scar tissue or cancer. However, Dr. Vokes did agree that even a biopsy would not be definitive and there is probably not a way to conclusively determine whether there is any cancerous cell growing in my head. I still have a number of questions for Dr. Vokes, so I scheduled another consultation with him on the 13th. Lori will be going with me and we will be preparing a list of questions to ask about their recommendations for treatment. I may go ahead and schedule the biopsy and just cancel if we decide not to proceed with it.

Meanwhile, I will be meeting with another surgeon, Dr. Leonetti to get a second opinion about whether or not I am a candidate for surgical resection. From everything we are hearing, surgery is simply not an option for me at this time.

I could really use prayer in a number of areas:

1. My spirit is really deflating. It is hard to keep a positive attitude and stay optimistic through all of this.
2. Wisdom to make the right decision. The biopsy itself is pretty risky due to the amount of radiation I've had on my head. Furthermore, they are recommending a second round of radiation which often has devastating consequences to the body coupled with chemo. Deciding on the right course of treatment is crucial at this stage.
3. My health. I've pretty much been alternating between sleeping and vomiting. I need a reprieve from that vicious cycle. I feel like I'm back in California (except that I don't have the lovely and entertaining Jeremy & Kristin by my side).

I'll try to keep updating as much as possible. Still no progress on the laptop (save for the fact that my man Kevin Edwards is working on it).