When Stever (Ed's nickname for his son, Steve) was arranging the tickets to see Celine, he let them know about Ed's cancer. Rene (Celine's hubby and Ed's first cousin) called Stever to let him know how sorry he was. Also, he offered to have his oncologist take a look at Ed's medical records for another opinion. (You may remember that he had throat cancer about 10 years ago.) When we were in the room backstage with Celine, I gave the records to Rene.
The oncologist is in Palm Beach and called Wednesday. After reviewing Ed's case, he felt the treatment being given is appropriate and the shrinkage of the tumors is a good sign. Ed had questions about the long-term. We had been told that they usually give 7-8 cycles of chemo and if the tumors have shrunk, the patient gets a break. Regular scans would pick up when the tumors start to grow, then more chemo would be given. This doctor said another approach is the patient keeps taking chemo until the tumors disappear. However, the more chemo, the more severe the after effects. This explains why Ed has been feeling more yucky and that feeling lasts longer after each treatment. He had been hiding his reactions from me after former treatments but after the one last Thursday, he couldn't hide it.
I thank Stever for following up with this and I appreciate Rene's thoughtfulness.
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