December 22nd, 2008: Today was another great doctor visit, this time with Dr. Jahan, my lead strategist and head oncologist. Eileen Lemus was with me, and we were both thrilled by Dr. Jahan’s assessment about the amount that my tumor has shrunk. Of course, the specific amount can’t be known until the next scans are done. That will happen on Jan. 7th or 8th when I go back into the hospital for my third round of chemo. The idea is that while I am being hydrated right after checking onto the ward, they will do an MRI of my pelvis as well as a CT scan of my chest and abdomen. The latter scans will measure the lung and liver lesions. The MRI scan will give details of the main tumor in my pelvis. Dr. Jahan said that he hopes that the large pelvic tumor will be shown to have “peeled away” from its invasion of the inner thigh muscle and the pubic bone. That’s the new vocabulary term for today: peeled away. Apparently, as tumors shrink in response to chemo, they retract from their previous extension, retreating from involvement with nearby tissues. Everyone out there, please imagine that my tumor has peeled away from all surrounding bones and soft tissues.

A word of caution: we won’t know about the results for sure until the scans have been taken and studied, however, as he was ending the clinic visit, Dr. Jahan, said, “This is the best results from chemo that I’ve seen in a long time.” To which I responded, “Yippppppieee!!” This was a clinic visit to remember for a long time.