We Are Leavin' on a Jet Plane

On Saturday, November 22, we will be taking the first plane ride with Lucy since we flew home from China back in July 2006. She was such a wee little peach then. We wonder what to expect from our not so little peach this time around. Will it be the 'happy go lucky' peach or will it be the cranky 'how can you keep me sitting in this seat for 5+ hours' peach?









We are flying to Boston and back for a few reasons. First, Lucy has not yet seen the East Coast nor all the pleasures that it offers, such as cold weather and meeting my sister, her husband, and my nieces Lauren and Rachel. Lucy has spoken to them on the phone several times, but this will be the first in-person meeting, and both sides are VERY excited.

Second, Lucy can celebrate Thanksgiving on that side of the world.
We can see if she enjoys the louder celebrants, the slightly different food, and the Pina family turkey brine (my brother in law David is the turkey day chef).





Third, my 20th year high school reunion is the day after Thanksgiving, so Michelle and I are going to go. I have already coordinated with about 8 friends who have promised to attend, so we should definitely have a good time. It should be an interesting for sure!

Fourth, both Michelle and I have other friends in the area that we have set up time to see. In some cases, it has been five to ten years since we have seen some of these people, so it should be very interesting to catch up.

We are looking forward to seeing everyone if not looking forward to traveling. The travel planning is being handled, as always, by my trusty sidekick Michelle. Never has she met an event or trip that she cannot plan for. And I just stay out of the way!

In other news, I have a new brain MRI scheduled for November 13 and a new full body PET/CT scheduled for December 10. So, by mid-December I should know how things have been progressing over the past few months. If good news arives, as we hope it to be, then we will continue on with my current treatment plan of MDX010 and I should be due for another treatment in December.

If no good news is to be had, then I have bigger decisions to make. I could go with what the doctor recommends, such as CCNU or, upon further review, a more aggressive use of Temodar than I was given during my biochemo treatment. Or I could go the no drug route and try the heal thy self ways of Dr. Morter. Or I could try to push for some other treatment program at some other hospital, assuming that my current doctor would not be set up to handle a new and different program.

The latter choice is very much up in the air at the moment because there are so many choices and no proven solutions or obvious choices. Thank you to everyone who has sent me suggestions or referred me to doctors, as these have been very helpful. To help me work through this side of the equation, I have set up a phone consultation with Dr. Mark Renneker on December 9. An article explaining a little about what he does can be found here. In my situation, I am looking for his help in determining what may be the best course of action for me to take. I do not have problems with my currrent doctors, just too much information and too many choices to realistically process. Hopefully he can help narrow the field a bit, if nothing else.