MD Anderson visit #1

We just arrived home at 2:15 from our 8am appointment at MD Anderson. In addition to a lot of waiting, we met Dr. Ann Tsao. She was a very beautiful, articulate and personable Thoracic Oncologist.

She agreed with the Victoria doctors that this early stage cancer should be treated with surgery as a first line treatment. She ordered additional tests for Dale. (today he had bloodwork and a chest xray) These will be completed on Monday and Tuesday next week. Dale will be scheduled to see a surgeon next week also. Exact schedule times won't be available until Monday afternoon.

Dale and Jackie both enjoyed visiting with Dr. Tsao and her personality gave all of us a sense of strength and encouragement. She prescribed some medications for Dale to help with the continued muscle spasm in his neck and also a sleep aid for the restless nights.

Dale and Jackie will spend Wednesday night here in Pearland (traffic is too bad now) and then drive with Emily home to Victoria to get our Friday Thanksgiving Dinner started! The rest of us will follow Friday morning.

All in all, we all felt a sense of relief, that the news from this doctor was the same as what we had been expecting and gave us encouragement that this tumor could be removed successfully.

Procedures that may occur next week, pending approval by surgeon, are:

Mediastinoscopy
Xenon pulmonary lung function test?
Brain MRI (standard for all lung cancer patients)
Repeat PET scan
Echocardiogram
New CT

Dr. Tsao was very encouraging about her ability to coordinate any chemotherapy with Dale's doctors in Victoria. She was adamant that the surgery should be performed at MD Anderson. Their surgeons are fair superior at lung cancer!