The Day Joe's Treatments Start

Well the day has arrived.  Today Joe has his first radiation treatment.  But first, we have to be at Duke at 9am for blood work followed by a 10am appointment with his oncologist, Dr. Zafar.  Hopefully, once the blood work results are in, we will know when his chemo will start and the treatment to get rid of this thing will be in full swing.  Joe's energy level remains very good and although the change in his appearance is not as noticeable in the last few days as it was in the first 10 days after the stint was put in, he does continue to become less and less yellow.

It's a cold day to start this but Joe is still so psyched from the weekend snow.  I couldn't have asked for a better gift for him if I could have ordered something up myself.  Those that know Joe well, know he LOVES snow!  He was like a giddy little kid on Saturday, running around texting and calling everyone he knows telling them it was snowing.  

Joe is going to ride with me to the office this morning so I can open up and run my morning reports and then we will be on our way to Duke.  Hopefully they will have some cookies for him to enjoy this morning!

We arrived at Duke right on time and checked in at the kiosk at 8:58am, took seats facing the TV and started to wait.  It's now 9:25am and we are still wating.
9:28am: Fill out patient survey
9:40am: Joe was called for blood work
9:50am: Joe was called for vitals
10:15am: Called back to exam room for appointment.  Dr. Zafar's nurse, Minokah came in first and went over where we were in the process and checked on any questions we might have...and we had several. She stayed in with us for about 30 minutes and then left.
11:10am: Leigh, the NP, came in for the appointment, went over medications and answered some more questions.  She let us know about the time line that we can expect: 5 1/2 weeks of the radiation/chemo, followed by approximately 4 weeks of down time for evaluation for surgery.  Then hopefully surgery, followed by a surgical recuperation time of 2-6 weeks.  After all that fun, then 4 months of chemo again.  All in all she said we can expect around a year before Joe is at his "new normal".
We did learn from today's blood work that Joe's bilirubin count is now at 5.3.  Still high, but a HUGE change from 11/22 when it was still at 23.6.  He won't begin chemo until it is below 2 so we have scheduled a quick blood work appointment for this Thursday to see where he is at.
After leaving the appointment we had a quick lunch at Chick-fil-A in the food court and next we are off to his first radiation appointment. Fun Fun :)

We arrived at the Radiation Oncology Clinic a little early and after Joe dropped off his green card at the desk, took a seat in the waiting room.  At 12:58, 2 minutes early, Ed the "technician" came out and called Joe's name and he left to go back.  So now I wait.

1:29pm- He's out and we are OUT OF HERE and he says he is feeling fine.
From now on for the next 5 1/2 weeks he will be here for his radiation treatment. On Thursday Joe also has an appointment for more blood work to make sure his bilirubin levels are continuing to drop. Hopefully they will be close enough at that point to go ahead and start the chemo as well.   For now, he gets dropped off at home and I'm back to work!