Well, a new day brings with it a new plan. One that I can live with and I am comfortable with, even if not what I had preferred.
I called my RO's office today and left word for him that my preference was to have IMRT. I also inquired as to whether or not he planned to do a PET scan.
About an hour later he called and we spent about 45 minutes on the phone. The PET scan is scheduled for Friday morning. That was the easy part. We then began discussing my preference for IMRT. He reiterated that he would do whichever treatment I wanted, however my choice was not his preference. In the end, I deferred to his expertise and will be having XRT.
My initial decision was made without taking a most important possability into consideration and was flawed. When asked why I preferred the IMRT I told him that from what I had read that I stood as good a chance of having the tumor eradicated with it and that it would also, in my mind, give me a better chance of not losing all of my salivary glands. In and by itself this was a basically correct impression. However, I left out one real important consideration.
My MRI did not show any spread anywhere. The PET scan has yet to be done, and in my uneducated mind I thought that it would only be looking for renegade cells elsewhere in my body. I also did not realize that even the PET scan will not pick up anything should there be a microscopic cell lurking somewhere.
He asked me what I wanted out of the treatment. I told him I wanted my best shot, with the tumor gone and with the IMRT treatment a better chance that at least some of the salivary glands intact. This would then give me a better chance at a better quality of life after treatment.
Dr. G told me that he wanted me cancer free, and to have a better chance to live, even if that meant a slightly lower quality of life due to the dry mouth problem. He told me that in many cases drugs can be used to help with that problem. He also told me that there could well be some microscopic cells in the vicinity, unseen by even the PET scan that would still be there after the IMRT treatment, but not there if XRT were done. With that additional piece of the puzzle put in place there was no more indecision. I'll send him a Christmas card in 2010 and thank him for explaining that to me.
