Afternoon Update (8/26)

The physical therapist came and E. was able to get out of bed. He's wobbly on his feet, but had good strength. He sat upright in a chair for about thirty minutes, and avoided nausea the entire time. He brushed his teeth, washed his face and got a clean gown. He even got one IV (his artial line) and his catheter removed (which is allegedly not such a pleasant experience).

E. ate a whole little container of applesauce for lunch as well as a cup of soup (well, the broth part of the vegetable soup anyways). He was then able to take some Vicodin (pills), which seems to have helped with his pain immensely. Before he fell asleep, I asked what his pain level was and he told me he wasn't having any. Yippee! He is now snoozing peacefully.

A radiation oncologist (filling in for E.'s regular radiation oncologist, as she is out of town) came to visit with us. He explained that either radio-surgery or radiation would probably be in E.'s near future. I asked about the "lifetime maximum" amount of radiation that we had frequently heard about and he clarified that different areas of the body have different lifetime maximums. So, just because E. received radiation in his esophagus and chest area doesn't mean he can't have radiation in his brain. When I inquired about chemotherapy, he said he wasn't sure because chemotherapy often has trouble breaking the "blood brain barrier," which is why E.'s previous chemo probably killed all the cancer cells in his body *except* for in the brain. He was working under the assumption that the tumors were a metastases from E.'s esophageal cancer, but that still needed to be confirmed by pathology (he returned later after checking with the pathologist and the preliminary report does confirm that, although the final report is still out). Unfortunately, he pointed out that when a cancer metastasizes to one place, it is not uncommon for it to metastasize to other places, or even come back again where it started. He sounded much like E. when he said, "I'm sorry it happened, but it's just another bump in the road." Then he added, "You just gotta roll with it."

At that, E. gave me a look that said, "I told you so."