Hello,

On Wednesday I had my first appointment with Dr. Pal, my medical oncologist. I’ve heard great things about him and I’m hopeful he will create the best plan for me. In the appointment he very clearly laid out a plan of action for me. He told me that he wanted to some blood tests and do another abdominal ct scan to understand whether my kidneys were functioning well and whether he could detect any distant cancer. He said he didn’t think there was distant cancer but wanted to rule it out before moving forward with chemotherapy. So that same day I had my blood tested and scheduled the ct scan for today, Friday.

Then yesterday I got a call from my urologist, Dr. Chan. He informed me that my kidneys aren’t functioning as good as they hoped. They weren’t functioning poorly just not good enough to move forward with ‘platinum chemo’ so he said we should move forward with surgery sooner rather than later. There are other chemo options that don’t require my kidneys to be as strong but Dr. Chan explained they aren’t as helpful so it wouldn’t be worth foregoing surgery for those chemo treatments. He wants to get me in for surgery in the next 2-3 weeks but before that he wants me to have the abdominal ct scan and one more round of blood and urine tests to ensure Wednesday’s labs weren’t just a result of dehydration.

So today I went to City of Hope and had the tests and scan. Now I just sit and wait to hear from Dr. Chan as to whether I will move forward with chemo first or go straight into surgery. I should hear from him by Monday.

It’s been a long month or so of tests and scans and I’m looking forward to having a plan in place already. There has been more pain recently (which I already reported to Dr. Chan and Dr. Pal) so I just want something to happen soon.

Will keep you updated…

-Queen B