January 10 Update

Wednesday morning was a quick trip to Duke for a radiation zap.  On Thursday morning, Chris had a radiation treatment, blood tests, and a visit with GI oncology.  All blood counts are still in the normal range, but dropping due to chemo.  This is an expected result.  Friday morning was supposed to be a quick radiation treatment, but due to technical difficulties, Chris had to wait 1.5 hours for the issue to get resolved.

During the GI Oncology visit on Thursday, Chris pressed to get more details on future treatment after the current round of chemo/radiation ends on Feb 4.  GI Oncology expects nothing to be done for 4 weeks after radiation treatment is complete.  This includes no trips to the Duke clinic, no bloodwork, no scans, no chemo, no radiation, etc.  Chris and GI Oncology will be thrilled not to hear from each other during that time.  During those 4 weeks, 'residual' radiation will still be working on the tumor.  After that, Chis will go in for another MRI and CT scan, which is intended to give the surgical team information on how to proceed. That's all we know!

Thanks to Wynn and Dianna for driving this week and to Alicia and Tina for two excellent dinners!  Thanks to Adele for driving Erin to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays!

Thanks, also, to everyone who has offered additional help and support.  We genuinely appreciate all the offers, and will accept, when we need it.  Chris is still showing very little impact from the chemo, and is functioning at 100%.  We also have the luxury of Chris' mom coming on 1/13 for a few weeks of added support.  We do anticipate we will need more help in the next phase (likely in March).

Chris and Diana

Chris and Wynn