In the Mean Time,

The day after our visit to NIH, I went to my oncologist to follow up on the biopsy the results of which were supposed to be back by then. The final results of the biopsy were still not back yet, but he went ahead and had a sample from it sent to the Mayo Clinic for a second opinion. With the Thanksgiving holiday coming up, he didn't want to take any chances of thongs being slowed down by it. I told him about the pain I'd been having in my sacroiliac and he ordered an MRI to see if anything had changed since the last one. Last, he referred me to a surgeon to have a port installed. It was a foregone conclusion at this point that I'll be getting chemo it was just a matter of what kind and when. The port will make it easier as I won't have to get stuck each time they need access to a vein.

I made it into work on Thursday for my only appearance of the week. It was a pretty quiet day and I felt ok up until around 4:00pm and then the pain in my leg started getting worse. I took my pain meds and gave them time to do their work, however by 5:30 the pain wasn't any better so I went ahead and got in the car to head home. I guess that I hadn't quite waited long enough because on the way home, the pain went away which was odd considering that sitting in the car usually aggravates all of my aches and pains.

Friday I met with the surgeon for a consultation. It's a pretty routine procedure so it was basically going over the details, all the standard disclaimers and a review of my current medications to determine if there will be any issues with the anesthesia. With the following week being a holiday week, the only time available was noon on the day after Thanksgiving at the hospital. Apparently I couldn't take any Ibuprofen for 24 hours before the surgery and since that is one of the main pain killers that I'm relying on, that was going to be tough. They also gave me a bottle of antiseptic soap and instructions to take a shower the night before as well as the morning of the surgery. Last, no food or drink after midnight the night before.

Monday I woke up with my sciatica on overdrive so I worked from home, struggling to find a comfortable way of sitting all day. By afternoon it wasn't any better, despite taking the pain meds, so I emailed my pain doc about it. He emailed me back at the end of the day stating that he thought it was muscle stiffness. I agreed with that diagnosis and he offered me a prescription for a muscle relaxer.

Tuesday I had an MRI of my lower spine, or as I like to call it, the Dubstep isolation chamber. The goal was to compare to the last one to see if there have been any changes due to this new strain. I picked up my muscle relaxer prescription and then spent the rest of the day working from home.

Wednesday I visited my oncologist again went over the biopsy results which confirmed the preliminary results. I'm going to need chemotherapy. We also discussed the new NIH trial. He let us know that the proposed trial includes the "standard of care", that he would give me for this, plus an experimental agent. He suggested that I go for it saying that it's his opinion that the more you can throw at the cancer, the better.

Thursday was Thanksgiving Day and my leg was bothering me for much of the day. It was there, but not too bad until we got into the car to visit the relatives. The ride out was a bit uncomfortable, but gave me the opportunity to try out the sciatica pillows that my wife bought me. They didn't eliminate pain altogether, but did ease it a bit. I ended up nodding off on everyone a couple of times, and had to get up from the table as soon as we were finished in search of better comfort. When we were finally ready to leave, I had to endure the ride back home.