On the Tuesday after surgery Dave and I met with Dr. D and he went through the diagnosis and treatment plan. Dave had a Pure Seminoma (which is the better kind) that was in Stage one with no metastasis anywhere else in his body, and his tumor markers (which are seen through blood work) were quite low. All of the above are incredible blessings and we could not be more thankful. The plan, as Dr. D saw it was to do 18-24 treatments of radiation, which would leave Dave with a 97% chance of the cancer never reoccurring. He sounded so sure of himself that it made us feel as though that was the only option, and that was what we needed to do. While Dr. D has been a major blessing in this ride...I was beginning to feel that maybe we needed to go one step further. Dr. D is a Urologist, although a very very good one, we were dealing with Cancer and we decided we needed to speak with an Oncologist. So we decided to see the best, we made and appointment with Dr. E....the very doctor who treated Lance Armstrong for testicular cancer.
Fast forward to this past Tuesday (what is with us and Tuesday's?!) We headed down to Indianapolis to meet with Dr. E and get his take on this whole mess. As we walked towards the "Cancer Pavillion" I could feel those fears welling up inside. I could feel things that I have never really dealt with about my mom coming to the surface...but this was not the moment for that to come out, so I smiled and took my husbands hand and we headed inside. Meeting with Dr. E was by far the best experience through this whole beautiful mess. He was easy to talk to and explained our options very clearly and spoke gently to a young couple faced with a big decision. And after much discussion and consideration we decided to take Dr. E's personal recommendation and opt out of radiation and go with a maintenance plan instead. This decision has brought me quite a bit of peace as I am NOT a fan of preventative radiation. So we left the hospital that day feeling a sense of relief and calm.
After leaving the hospital we headed to our hotel in downtown Indy and decided to treat the rest of the day and night as a vacation...and we had a blast! Just spending time with my husband away from all of the everyday stresses of life was exactly what I needed...and I know this trip is what he needed also. My only regret is that we didn't have the chance to stay a couple more nights!
Here are a few pictures from our trip...
The views from the hotel roof...
A couple of the fountain area at night...
And a pretty perfect end to a great night....
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