Monday Aug 13, at the clinic

Yesterday was my first appointment at the Cancer Clinic. My best friend Carmen came with me to be my support, and second set of ears.

We got there quite early (7:45am) and it turned into a long day.....we went shopping after!

In the end of the appointment I am non the wiser on which treatment I am going to get. When the doctor came in to see us he said the same thing as the rest....you are so young and this is uncharacteristic of this type of cancer to be in someone so young. After he looked down my throat (this was the worst time ever, I actually cried this time) he said it looked inflamed but he would not commit to anything until he spoke to the head of pathology and Dr. Durham. Ok, i thought he would have already done this and I would have a definate answer....but he wanted to have a look too before he spoke to everyone.

We went over the options, and he said he was leaning away from Radiotherpaty due to the long term effects and the % of people whose Cancer comes back within 15-20 years. I told him Dr. Durham said surgery and laser was not an option....so now we are back to square one.

We also met with a very nice nurse who went over all the other things I could expect, i will need a nutritionist to make sure i don't waste away because my throat will be very sore and i may not want to eat. I also had to see the dental department to get x-rays of my jaw in case i need to get some dental work before treatment starts.

All in all it was a good orientation, and I have to call the doctor this afternoon to see how the discussions went with the other two doctors. They will have an answer for me today whether the consensus is yes it's Cancer let's move forward, or ........? not sure really. I hope he has those answers for me today.....I will post when I know.

Kim