I received an email from Dr. Liau and there was not any additional pathology available this week from my surgery, so they will bring my case up next Wednesday at tumor board to see if there is more information.  This is what I do know, though.  At this point, we will be flying back down to UCLA in a couple of weeks to meet with a couple of new doctors.  Up until this point, my only doctor at UCLA has been Dr. Liau, who is my surgeon.  I have not done radiation, yet, for said reasons, but they are wanting that to be the next step no matter the final pathology.  Because radiation is everyday for six weeks, I will obviously be doing that here locally in Salem.  I will fly down to meet with Dr. Michael Selch, who is a radiation oncologist that specializes in brain tumors.  He will then be able to coordinate and oversee my local treatment here in Salem.  When radiating the body, there are multiple variables that are involved in calculating how much of the tissue to radiate, how many rads to throw at it, etc.  I want to make sure we’re all on the same page here before I do this!

I will also meet with Dr. Timothy Cloughesy.  He is a neuro-oncologist, and an amazing one from what I have heard and read over the years.  He will work with my local oncologist.  I found out that the genetic testing on my tumor that I had mentioned in my previous blog is only being done to decide now on the chemotherapy that will be used later, when/if it is needed.  There are several different chemothefrapies out there, now.  It’s not fool proof by any stretch, but they are finding ways to test cancer cells ahead of time and anticipate which drug they will most likely respond or not respond to.  This limits the pain and misery of the common cancer shotgun approach, which is great!

So at this point, it’s looking like radiation won’t get going until the beginning of April, which is fine with me!  They originally wanted to start in a couple of weeks.  The thought of them radiating this noggin right now just makes it hurt all the more!