Thursday, December 8, 2011

Back from the night in L.A. and the visit to Kaiser.  Stayed in a really nice executive suite at the Hollywood Renaissance which looked out on the Hollywood Hills, the Hollywood sign and the Magic Castle.  Would have been fun to do some exploring while we were out there since even though we are so close, we never go out there.  Got in the elevator last night to go to our room.  Needed the room card to access the floor the room was on.  I got out, turned around and the door was closing before Mom and Chris could get out!  They didn't have the room key, I still had them in my hand.  There was no way for them to get back on the floor and Chris didn't think they were going to get out of the elevator.  It was rather funny, we ended up having to get security to pick them up in the lobby and bring them up to the room.  Then on the way down the hallway as we were leaving this morning, Chris has lost so much weight that his pants were falling down and were just about around his knees!  So, mom grabs ahold of his pants from the back and holds them up while he walks down the hall.  Chris says "Norma, you can take care of everything!!"  (We had forgotten to bring his belt along).

So we got to the kaiser office and met first with the Physician Assistant, Emily who was very nice.  she reviewed the records, the scans and the meds.  Did the mental status exam and asked questions.  She told us that Chris would start the chemotherapy drug on the same day as the radiation therapy starts.  He will take the pill every night for 42 nights then a 5 night a month maintenance dose for 11 months.  After a little bit of a wait, Dr. Green came in and talked to us for a few minutes.  He is a very nice, youngish doc.  He reviewed the chemo med regimen with us and said he does not feel there is very much swelling in Chris's brain so is going to wean him down on the Decadron (steroid) from 4 mg 4 times a day to 2 mg once a day.  I should think that will make a difference in how he feels.  so Chris asked the same question he asks all doctors he sees which is "Will I be able to go back to work?"  Dr. Green said he did not see any reason why Chris would not be able to go back to work at some point.  He feels the chemo and radiation will work well and this is not the end of life scenario that has been painted for us by others.    Lord, I pray that this is true.  Wouldn't that be an awesome answer to all of the prayers that have been going up?  We all thought the visit with Dr. Green was very positive and I left with a good feeling in my heart.  Tomorrow morning is the CT Scan appointment in Ontario to do the brain mapping for radiation.

Thank you to the Stewards for delicious chicken stew dish for dinner and Anna's cookie exchange cookies for dessert - yum.  Also, thanks to Maria for showing up at work yesterday with a pot roast and bread.  It was yum as well.  I think I've mentioned once or twice how very blessed we are, but it bears repeating!  thanks everyone.  Keep those prayers coming.  We love you all.  CJSRJ