Monday - September 28

Good news today. Dr. Massarelli, Michael's chemo oncologist, said they will stop chemo a week early at six rounds. He did round five today. She said the tumor they can feel in his lymph node is responding really well. She told him they schedule 7 chemo rounds and really hope to get people through 4 of them, but that people 20 years younger than Michael often have to stop at that point because it is just too much. So his final chemo, #6, will be next Monday, October 5. This isn't any fun but he is really hanging in there handling it well. Daily radiation continues through October 19. He can still taste a lot of things and doesn't have any trouble swallowing (one of the potential bad side effects). We are still picking up chicken satay and phad thai at Daisy Mint on our way home late on Mondays for dinner. The cumulative effect of this is real but looking at him you would not know he is in week 5 of this regimen.

We gave his chemo nurse a ride to her car. The nurses have to park a very long way from the hospital and it was 8:30 when they finished. Michael has, of course, gotten to know all of the staff.