Chemo Plan

Well, it was a lot of information to take in for an afternoon.
I'll try to summarize.

1)  We loved the doctor.  He lived up, in my opinion, to the reputation he holds in the community.  He was personable, informative, kind, and clear.  I am most thankful and grateful for Ray being held in his care.  God does look out for us.

2)  Ray will begin chemo on Friday.  ("Hurray!!!" I spell it with my southern accent; for northerners, "Hooray!!!")  He will do four cycles of chemo.  Each cycle lasts three weeks.  He'll have two drugs the first week, one drug the second week, then take a week off.  Then he does this cycle again three more times.  The first week of each cycle is the worst.  Having two poisons running through your body is tough on you.  They flush it before, after and during with saline solution to help get it through the body as fast as possible.  We were told that this first treatment on Friday might last as long as 7 hours.  The other treatments are more like 45 minutes, with time need beforehand to update blood work and check on his blood status.

(They said we can pack an iPod, laptop, DVD player, books, snacks, lunch, drinks, anything that we need.  I'm going to pack him up quite a care-backpack and we'll post pictures later).

3)  The doctor did say that Ray would not lose his hair.  --That his side effects will most likely be fatigue, nausea, and light numbness in his fingers and toes.  The nurse who counseled us for 30 minutes after our doctor's visit was less optimistic, outlining many more issues that can arise -- when to call for help; when the symptoms are normal, when they are emergency status, etc.  It was so overwhelming that I felt like both crying and vomiting after taking four pages of notes and receiving multiple booklets to read.  I think we're going to get some hand sanitizer for Ray's classroom and post a little sign for kids to clean their hands when coming inside.

4)  The doctor did say that the poisons will squelch the microscopic cancer cells around his body.  He felt quite confident of this.  This, of course, is what we're hoping for with the additional 5% chance of cure that we were told about at Johns Hopkins.  The doctor likened it to stepping on a birds egg.  Stepping on an egg is easy; killing a bird out of the sky is much harder.  Kind of a gruesome analogy, but it makes sense.  Ray, of course, chimed in with a Shakespearean reference to killing baby snakes from the play, Julius Caesar.

Brutus (of killing Caesar):
"And therefore, think him as a serpent's egg --
which, hatched, would as his kind grow mischievous --
and kill him in the shell."

He also believed that Ray should be in good shape for surgery, which was a concern of mine.  I was afraid that Ray would be so weakened from chemo that he would recover more slowly from the surgery. Not so, says the doctor.  Ray is in good shape (and should maintain that good shape by exercising often), and should be fine.

5)  Speaking of which, the doctor explained that he and the surgeon do 95% of the work in curing him, but Ray has to bring 5% to the table.  He said that Ray can't lie in bed with the covers over his head and mope around.  He needs to engage the world, exercise, eat healthy, drink fluids, and have a winning attitude.  He said that without that, he's sabotaging his success.  (Of course, no one could keep Ray pinned down no matter how much we'd want to!!)

This was a plaque with a bell to ring in the chemo room (I took the picture with my new phone that lets me email pictures; fancy huh?).  It says, "To celebrate this day, as I go on my way, I ring this bell, for I am well, my treatment is done, and I can say I have won."

So here we are.
Beginning treatment that has been a long time coming.
Anxious, scared, and mostly trusting in God's love and sovereignty.  Ray was reading a post by a Californian man who joined Ray's "Called to Teach" website.  The writer said that he wondered why people doubt in God's will to heal.  He said that people often think of Job's story in the Bible, but seem to forget that it was Satan who attacked Job.  He then reminded his readers that every time Jesus was petitioned for help, he answered, and he healed.  Every time.

So far, we have found an excellent surgeon, an excellent oncologist, and have been given a hopeful prognosis despite the severity of what he has now.  The rest lies in His hands, and there we rest as well.