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Yesterday afternoon, right after my last post, I got a call from my doctor. He and the radiation oncologist had been discussing the rest of my treatment. My doctor had intended to follow my chemo with 4 weeks of daily radiation, which is pretty standard practice for my type of Hodgkin's. My radiation oncologist however didn't like the location of my tumors, and didn't think that radiation was right for me. So my radiation oncologist gathered up some studies showing that more chemo is just as effective as radiation following chemo, and the two of them had an arm wrestling match. I don't know if the radiation oncologist is younger, but he's in a bit better shape, so he won the arm wrestling match. So now I get 8 more weeks of chemo with no radiation. Although I was very happy to have finished chemo two weeks and never wanted to have to do it again, I guess it's for the best. If I'd had radiation, there was a good chance that end up with damage to my heart and lungs. Heart problems probably wouldn't show up for a few decades, but this is something that I'd rather not deal with. With chemo only, the likelihood of heart and lung problems is much lower. So tomorrow at 9:45, I get to go back and puke on some nurses.
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