August 31, 2007

Evan's Treatment Plan

Dear Family & Friends,

Thanks for all your cards and e-mails – I’m sorry I can’t respond to each of you individually, but please know that we appreciate each of your messages.

We met with the Radiation Oncologist yesterday. His name is Dr. Watson and we liked him very much. He had already arranged appointments for all the preparation work, so we got everything done in one day which was great. Evan had to have another CT Scan and another MRI because they needed even higher resolution films for radiation than they did for the biopsy. They also fit him for a mask that he’ll wear to protect his face during treatment. It was a long day for both of us – about 6 hours from start to finish, but we were glad to get it all done.

He will start the Radiation and Chemotherapy treatments next Wednesday (Sept. 5th). For the radiation, he’ll go in 5 days a week (Mon.-Fri.) for 6 weeks. We figure his last treatment should be on Tuesday, October 16th which is exciting because Lindsay’s birthday is on the 18th, and Evan’s is on the 20th. So we’re looking forward to being done with radiation in time to celebrate their birthdays!

Each day’s radiation treatment only takes about 15 minutes from start to finish – that was a lot less time than I was expecting, so that was good news.

The chemo drug that Evan will be taking comes in a pill form and he’ll be able to take that at home, which will be really convenient. He’ll take that every day (7 days a week) throughout the 6 weeks of radiation. Then he’ll have one month off before they start it again. They’ll be doing blood tests every week, and if his white blood cell count drops too low he may have to stop the chemo for a few days till it improves, but the radiation will continue uninterrupted.

For those who are wondering how the radiation can attack the tumor without causing damage to all the other brain tissue it travels through – they will use between 3 and 6 low-dose radiation beams, each coming in from a different angle. The radiation doesn’t reach its full power dose until those beams intersect at the point of the tumor. I thought that was really interesting. We are so grateful for modern medical technology!

Anyway, so that’s the plan, in a nutshell. We’re going to relax and enjoy the Labor Day Weekend and then be ready to get all this going next week. Our ward is having a special fast for Evan this Sunday – if any of you would like to do so also that would be wonderful. Thank you for all your love and support. We’ll keep you posted as the treatment progresses.

Love,
Margot