Another day of surprises

Originally posted: December 21, 2015

We thought today would be our last day at home without anything to "do". We knew Physical therapy(PT) and Occupational therapy(OT) were to start bright and early tomorrow morning. We did not have the radiation start date. That was until just before noon when we found out it would start at 5 today. Shortly after we were out at noon and Derek's speech started to become slurred intermittently. His oncologist happened to call while we were out and she said that if it worsened to call tonight. Thankfully after a rest his speech has been fine the rest of the day. That was a reminder to me that even though he is home, he still has a brain tumor and little things may pop up like this just to keep life interesting.
His treatment went fine. The Dr came out after about 20 minutes and said that they had been positioning him that whole time and the treatment would be starting. That lasted about 10 minutes. I would rather they took as long as the need to position before sending radiation in. Derek has not had any ill effects from the radiation 3 hours ago. He did have an antinausea med onboard going into it in case of nausea. He wanted to get food right away after. I pray they all go as smoothly for him!!

The oncologist gave us a call earlier like I said. She is actually on vacation this week but as any Dr, is still working and keeping us in the loop. Derek has the tissue marker that qualifies him for the study/trial in Pittsburgh. We have never had a more difficult decision to make. We do not have all of the information about the study yet. We need to talk to the Dr that is running the study and that will be happening soon. We have a little time to make a decision. This will delay his start of chemo. If he does the study he cannot have chemo.

Children are normally not up for studies on their first bout with cancer. Derek's tumor is so severe/aggressive that he would probably not have a second chance at getting it again. Long morning tomorrow. Radiation, followed by PT or OT(he was to have both but they schedule radiation during one so that sort of trumps all). Then a few more meetings with various Drs and staff.