Layman's terms

Two unphotogenic people achieve a pretty good 
photo helped by sunset at Lands End. 
(Trebor went back to Berlin on Weds.)

Several people have commented about how technical my last post was. I didn't realize. I guess I've been geeking out on stuff too. I could have said, Or just read the last four paragraphs.

I talked to Jen the medical assistant from Dr. Block's office. I had called them and asked when their recommendations would be rolling in...turns out Dr. Block thought that she was going to call me, and she thought Dr. Block would...she also thought I was planning on going to Chicago to get treated. Alack. Here are their chemo recommendations, short version:

Their primary recommendation are drugs called Taxotere and Gemzar. I didn't think to ask about side effects. I hope I never need to. The two drugs could also be supplemented with a targeted therapy - not chemo, it's an antibody that turns off a growth signal called VEGS - called Avastin. It's FDA approved for cervical cancer and some good info about it has come out just in the last few weeks.

I got a copy of Dr. Munster's (UCSF) report from Misha, my acupuncturist. (She's in their system and they sent her a copy.) They also sent it to Amy Nelson, my main oncologist. But not, of course, to me. It was good to read. A few things in it aren't true, as I mentioned, they are based on what I could recount from memory about scans. Some odd things in it too. Like under drug history, it says "whatever was available." I must have written that on the intake forms! That's not true either.

Misha thinks my cough might be do to with allergies, which kind of makes sense to me, as it comes with allergy-like fatigue and no other symptoms. She was also wondering about "black mold" since it seems to be worse in the morning. I'm not sure about that and unfortunately testing for it is super expensive. Here's something from Health.com: 8 Causes of Chronic Cough. Should go to an allergist, or whatever that's called. Plus an optometrist, and...

Co-leading a retreat with Karunadevi - 'til Tuesday.