Puttering around the house

Robin gets a little better each day! Usually she talks too much and then she has to take a day off. The skin on her face is looking pretty good, but the inside of her right cheek and the side of her tongue are still pretty raw. The clinicians had stated that it could take two to four weeks to heal and Monday will be three weeks! She spends less time on the couch now and is sometimes puttering around the house working on small projects.

For Thanksgiving Robin had some chocolate pudding and a little egg drop soup - a great improvement over just Gatorade (and all the PEG tube feedings)! Although her taste buds are a little off she's hoping to start soft foods this coming week.

We'll be back in the city this week for more appointments. Tuesday we'll follow-up with the oncology and radiation therapy folks. Wednesday morning she will have another PET-CT scan. That's the test in which they inject her with radioactive sugar and then scan her body for spots where the sugar is concentrated. Since cancer cells grow quickly they accumulate the sugar molecules and they appear as bright spots on the PET scan.

Wednesday afternoon we'll meet with the surgical team to review the PET scan results and to discuss the plan for surgery. We have been told not to be disheartened if the PET scan identifies cancer cells in her right cheek. The treatment plan (chemo-radiation-surgery) includes the surgical phase because it's not uncommon for this aggressive cancer to have survived the first two phases (chemo-radiation). The results of the PET scan may influence the specific surgical plan - we'll find out Wednesday. Surgery is planned for just over two weeks from now - Monday, December 11th.