Photos and Updates

Okay - so that last post wasn't the shortest one ever. But given all we have gone through, learned, done, etc. etc. Wednesday through Friday - it felt short to me. :-) I have decided you all probably don't need or want all the myriad of details so am just going to do a couple updates and then share out some photos.

One of our fondest photos is from the start of this most current series of events: the very first appointment of Wednesday - a blood draw! Matt's veins are pretty tough to find usually (both his neck and tonsil surgeries took multiple sticks for the IVs) but Tran, whom Matt dubbed "the Blood Queen," found the one she wanted in the first try - it didn't hurt at all and Matt was out of there in minutes. He said (and posted on Facebook) it was the BEST blood draw ever. See Tran, above.

Update 1: Matt went back down to Mayo again on Friday for another PET scan. It was very interesting he said, especially in that it was NOTHING like the one he had up here in November. He was injected with a similar radioactive glucose but the actual scan took over an hour (the other one was only a few minutes). Also, very different machines evidently. SO. We think this is ideal as what a great (and potentially more well done?) 'baseline' image for his files.

Update 2: One of the key pieces we learned at Mayo on Wednesday was the importance of the first six months after treatment. Evidently, if a head/neck cancer reoccurs it reoccurs largely within the first six months. The two year mark is important as well and the five/six year marker (no recurrence) is of course the goal. As such, every day Matt goes by with no new cancer growth (and, ergo, the sooner he starts treatment) the better. It actually feels good to know this finite period of hyper-watchfulness, and makes all the various follow-up appointments and scans make even that much more sense.

Update 3: Thursday afternoon included - along with the discussion with Dr. H - the prep and fitting of Matt's plastic mask, that he will wear for all treatments. The one thing he is a bit anxious about is his ability to breath: because of the flouride trays he has to wear during radiation it is hard to breath through his mouth and so if his nose is stuffed up .... Could be hard. The techs said we would figure things out if and when that happens. The actual mask and the process of fitting it was pretty cool. See photos including the CT machines that is part of the fitting (above left), the mask being fitted over Matt's head and shoulders (below), Matt in mask and bottom, Matt with his very own treatment mask.

So, we are still reading and mulling over chemoradiotherapy vs. radiotherapy alone...Hoping to talk to some folks that have gone through it as well as other medical friends....More next week I am sure.

FYI for our Facebook friends: be sure you are 'friends' with Matt as he is able to update his status vs. his phone and he periodically updates/adds photos there with Matt-captions (needless to say, they are funny!).