Friday's Drs. Appointments / Progress....

I saw the neurosurgeon today and he removed the staples from my head (all 37 of them - with a staple remover!). He is very pleased with my recovery and is very confident that as much of the tumor as possible has been excised. If anything was left behind, we will attack it with the chemo. The pathology came back and it was lymphoma - very unusual - lymphoma does not usually present in the brain. There is a lot of complicated reasons why this does or does not matter, but my Team of health care professionals is working through that and I am not stressing over the whys and hows - my job is to be ready for the attack and I am working to stay strong and healthy for that. I had a very good nights sleep and woke up feeling great today. I am in almost no pain (have barely taken a Tylenol all week (and believe me, they have given me all the heavy duty pain stuff - I just have not needed it yet - yippee!).
Some of you may remember that my sister has a warped sense of humor - well, she got the fun job of combing all the goo and red gunk out of my hair left from surgery and staple removal. - She is a licensed barber, but I don't think that this sort of thing falls within her usual client service. She kindly washed my hair for me (free of charge) and worked some magic with the scissors to help even out the terrible half shaved head mess that the surgeon performed. (Again, he is a surgeon and not a barber) Well, as she completed the grooming and stared at the scar - she said, "OMG, you are only a "C Minus". I can't believe it, but the scar looks like a C- Too funny - maybe I can use that as the name of my street gang or garage band (I do sort of look like a punk rocker). My hair better grow fast over that minus sign - I know that I am at least a C+!!!!!
I also had a consultation with my oncologist today. The good news is that the PET Scan came back CLEAN. Which means no other cancer in my body (yeah!) So that is the most excellent of news. There appears to be only one primary cancer site to fight! The hard part is that it is difficult to get the chemo to the brain and there is only one good treatment protocol to do it. I believe that the treatment protocol was developed by a team from Johns Hopkins and has been statistically very successful. It is a tough treatment and I will need to receive the chemo treatments in the hospital as an in-patient. Kind of yucky, but I will be monitored and under constant supervision, so there will be less worries. I had hoped to have more time - especially time to visit with all my friends and fans and co-workers and buddies, but I don't. I will be admitted to the hospital on Monday morning and will start my first chemo treatment then. I will be in the hospital for about 5 days and I won't bore you with all the medical details. Hopefully I will be able to have visitors between chemo treatments, but let me get through the first one and we will plan from there. I will be thinking happy thoughts and sending them your way and hope that you will do the same. Monday seems kind of soon, but I am ready to kick some cancer butt and move another peg along this road to recovery. THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT!
Lotsa loveDebbie