8/14/03 Good Morning!
Below is the text of an e-mail I sent the family last night. David & I had a whirlwind afternoon. I had called Loyola on Monday to make an appointment with the doctor (Dr. Edward Melian) who is going to ZAP my eye tumors, and his first appointment was October 29th! THAT made me uneasy, to say the least. So I called again and spoke to a very nice woman who had been his assistant up until 3 weeks ago. She said she would see what she could do. I didn't hear anything all day Tuesday, so Wednesday morning I called again and spoke to his new assistant, also very sweet. She said she would e-mail the doctor and that only he could authorize additional appointments. So at 1:00 p.m. I got a call (at the office) and they asked if I could come in for a 5:00 p.m. appointment. "Sure, I can!" So David swings into action for me - drives home to let my father's dog out and pick up my very handsome black leather cancer tote bag (my dear friend Debbie Hoops had purchased a red one while here on her last visit and we both decided that I should be as "stylie" as possible during all this, so my MRI's and all my notes look very fashionable). I hurried over to Marshall Fields and picked up 3 boxes of Frango Mints as a thank-you to the kind doctor and his two assistants for getting me in so quickly. I met David at his office and we scurried into Loyola to meet Dr. Melian and Clinic A of the Cardinal Bernadine Cancer Center. We got out at 8 p.m. and were very tired, but very pleased.
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Will do a longer e-mail tomorrow via my website but wanted to pass on the good news that we got an appointment with Dr. Edward Melian at 5 p.m. today. He is my radiology and neurological oncologist. AND, the resident studying under him this shift is Dr. John Dombrowski, older brother of Julie Anne Dombrowski, who was in Claire's class at BHS!! Both doctors extremely nice and sooo competent (John first got a PHd in chemical engineering before going into medicine - yikes!). Dr. Barton told us that these guys are brilliant. Anyway, liked them both alot (Dr. Melian practices from a wheelchair. It appears he has no use of his legs. Amazing!), and the long and the short of it is that they said my cancer was caught VERY early and that my numbers are good. I am showing no symptoms that they usually see with this. I will probably start my radiation in 3 weeks and the good news is that they expect to use very low doses and it will only last 3-3 1/2 weeks. Slam dunk! I WILL develop a catarac (sp?) over time and will have to have that taken care of (another excuse to visit Dr. Ahmad!) I MIGHT develop what is called "dry eye" which most likely would go away, eventually. I will lose my eyelashes temporarily and maybe my eyebrow (you can barely see it anyway) and I will look a little funny for awhile (thank goodness C&B made me buy those indoor sunglasses!). Anyway, I am excited to get going. Will have to have more tests over the next two weeks - more MRI's and CAT scans. He said the radiation WILL remove the tumors and they are not likely to come back in the same place. A ray of sunshine! More as we learn it! xoxo"
So, there you have it. I'm on my way to doing something to control this disease that has invaded my body. If I'm lucky, it will just be this radiation for awhile. It pleases me that I might be able to get through the holiday season without interruption. If I'm really, really lucky, I may not have to have chemotherapy for years. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Anyway, thank you all for your support and concern. I will start working on a driving schedule as soon as I have firm dates, and I will contact those of you who have offered to drive. Thanks to my school district buddies who will be at their posts broadening the minds of our young people - I know you offered to drive, but there will be other opportunities before this is all over. Susan will be here for ten days and Claire is coming down for part of the time that David is in Ireland, so I'll be well taken care of!! xoxo
9:17:14 AM 
