Am I romantic, or what?

Today was a another round of tests, followed by a visit to the radiology oncologist.  The chest x-ray and the liver ultrasound are standard.  As I understand things (insert grain of salt here), these tests check to make sure the breast cancer hasn’t spread and to make sure the patient is up for the radiation treatment.  One of the first places breast cancer metastasizes is in the liver.  I didn’t know this.

The results of the morning’s tests are positive.  Positive in this case is a good thing.  It’s not always in some of these cancer tests/screenings/exams.  Sometimes negative is what you want.

The radiologist went through everything with us, explaining how cancers are classified.  And not just Stage 0, Stage 1, etc., but the more detailed classifications.  I think I understood most of it.  I told him I’m going to use him as an example in class.  I have a lot of premed students,.  My exams contain a lot of explain-your-reasoning type questions.  I’ve been telling them they need to learn to write clearly and accurately because if they become doctors, they will have explain to a patient, the patient’s parents, or the patient’s children what the problem is and how it will (and won’t) be treated.  Today I saw an example of a doctor who was able to do that effectively.

Kathy is going to undergo six weeks of radiation therapy, five days a week.  Then she’s done.  The only thing standing in the way is getting the insurance taken care of.  That should be done in about a week.

The only negative is that she can’t leave during Spring Break next month.  I was planning on shipping the family (including the dogs) out for the week to visit family while we have the sewer line under the house replaced. My plan was to crash with a friend and not have to pay for a hotel.  That’s not an option anymore.  Of course since insurance isn’t going to cover any of the cost, a hotel is the least of the expenses.  I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it.