Just got back from a trip to MD Anderson this week... wow, what a place...

I have a newfound respect for MD Anderson after seeing it in action. Yes, there is a cattle-call feel about it at times, but a lot of folks also bent over backwards for us when we told them we were there from out of town and only had a few days. I had to laugh when they call you six at a time to do bloodwork, and sit you down in chairs right next to each other in the same room. A bloodwork assembly line -- how novel!!

Basically, they confirmed everything my docs in Phoenix were saying, so that was comforting. We are going to stay in Phoenix for this round of treatments, only because I will be on the same IMRT machine, and the Phx folks are familiar with my initial treatment plan. At one point, they even considered using my old mask -- believe it or not I held on to it for some reason -- but it is too loose now since I lost a lot of weight from the first go around (and lost a nice chunk of my left neck from my recent radical neck dissection).

I went in for my simulation on Friday (kind of like reliving a nightmare in some ways) and will likely start treatments either late this week or early the week after. This time we get to add chemo to the mix -- joy, joy...

But I intend to deliver the knock out punch to the cancer this time around. Time to get back into fightin' mode...