June 10th, 2010

We saw the Oncologist today and received chemo information.
>
> He will have a "port" inserted in his chest, so they can easily get to his
vein to administer chemo and take blood for testing. 
>
> The chemo will be administered by a pump, that will administer chemo for 44
hours each time.  We will go to the Dr to get the pump hooked up, then return
home for the duration ( 44 hours ), then go back to see the Dr to remove the
pump.
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> He will have chemo every other week for 6 months.
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> The rate of the cancer coming back after the chemo, for the next two years is
about 40%.  The benchmarks are 2 years and 5 years, after 5 years his survival
rate is very good.
>
> I have to say that this Dr visit was the toughest hurdle yet.  The energy in
the Cancer Dept is very depressing, to put it mildly.  It affected Armando
today.  He got very quiet and seemed quite upset, I even saw him tear up a
couple of times, tho he tried to hide it.  By the time we got home (we were at
the hospital for 3 hours today...) he is a bit better, still very quiet.
>
> We are awaiting insurance approval for the Port insertion, as soon as we get
that, we will have the surgery to insert it.  He will have it inserted by a
Vascular surgeon and return home the same day.  The Oncologist is shooting for
chemo to start in a couple of weeks.
>
> That is about it, I think...