4 down, and a great medical report - Well, I was going to wait until tomorrow to report after 5 treatments down, but Thursday is doctor day and too much good info to wait until tomorrow.

I had wondered if RO every compared the neck CT he did to the original CT done before surgery (the one that eventually located the enlarged lymph node). Sure enough, he had compared them and said his CT shows no swelling at all, ie back to normal size, so I'm restaging you T2N0, what you were originally. Wow, that alone made my day.

Then I asked more about my path report, invasive and moderately differentiated. All along this phrase has scared me. He said invasive is just a synomym for you have cancer. You are getting invasive and agressive mixed up and your tumor is NOT aggressive. Moderately differentiated tissue isn't the best, but it's not the worst either, so stop worrying.

So, I asked what will tell you that chemo is needed. He said if the radiation doesn't work and we won't know that for awhile. I then asked about the two small masses in the bottom of each lung to which he said everybody has something in there. You are scheduled for another chest CT in December, so sit tight and wait. You are making much more out of all this than you should be.

I said, hey I'm just being your normal patient asking all these questions. His reply, not you are not normal. Most of my patients don't want to know what they have or what is going on. You are just very curious. Keep on asking questions, I'll keep answering them.

Everything wasn't rosy - the dietician fussed a little because I had lost 2 pounds in last 18 days. She said, eat, eat all the time, eat 3 meals a day with snacks in between. Eat ice cream, eat dessert, I know your throat hurts, but eat anyway. the doc will give you a prescrip for a bigger bottle of oral lidocaine. Don't you come back in here next week having lost more weight.

I had just gone down one waist size on my jeans. She said that is not the way to do it. LOL.

Overall, a really good day for N74TG (we even came in 2nd in bridge).

thanks for enduring me guys
Tony

P.S. After all the recent discussion of manuka honey I asked the doc about it. He had never heard of it at all. He said since you're going to Walmart anyway pick up a gallon jug of consumable aloe vera liquid. Aloe vera has been through many medical trials and it's anti-inflammatory capabilities are well documented. Maybe someone will do a medical trial on manuka. I suppose I can kind of see why he would want to go with what he knows is successful. Still, I may buy some manuka anyway.