Ox Fall Down

I did have a scan six months ago and I did not post the results. Sorry. Feeling increasingly a member of this Land of the Living. The Land of the Dying keeps calling, asking for its passport back. To update, that scan was clean as was the one I took yesterday. The doctors are so excited. Each visit now they clamber into the tiny examination room like clowns into the clown car. And they repeat questions and prodding and smiles. Although the communication is excellent at MGH's sarcoma club they still want to see and feel for themselves. And I play the obliging patient, disrobing and robing and re-disrobing-and re-robing like an art class model. With all the millions in computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging a hand on the leg is still an efficient way to check for metastasis in the legs.

More later and with fewer metaphors. After Colbert and Penn Meta-Free-Phor-All last night I just can't stop. Signing off to ski.

Chris DeOrio is riding the Pan-Mass Challenge in support of Dana-Farber. The event raises almost 50% of the Jimmy Fund's budget. I have been to excellent hospitals in MA, NY, the UK and France and consulted with more in DC, TX and Denmark. DFCI is at the top of the list (thank you, MGH, thank you, NE Deaconess, thank you Canton-Potsdam General.)

If you want to help a great hospital and support an Italian on a bike, click here.

Awaiting the official results from the radiologist but the initial assessment is good. Yoon read it in front of me and couldn't find anything suspicious. Next scan in October.

My infusion nurse is running the Boston Marathon in support of basic cancer research at Dana-Farber. Click here to learn more.

Dana-Farber is small, attentive and very well run. It's one of the absolute best hospitals I've ever been to. We're lucky to have such a fine clinic in the north-east.

April 24th at MGH.

Yoon's website is still in the works. The retroperitoneal case is mine. No press is bad press, right?

Trent,
The official radiology report says no evidence of recurrence.

The website is
http://www.massgeneral.org/cancer/about/providers/surgical/advances/sarcoma.asp
Sam Yoon

No visible disease revealed in Monday's scan.

Titanium clips left by Yoon to mark the surgical bed stand out in bone white. Ribs, kidneys, intestine and blood vessels galore grow and shrink as he scrolls through my films. From the bottom of the lungs all the way down to the coccyx. Amazing technology. The CT scan at noon, lunch at one, and at two we're looking at the images.

Next scan in April. Snow on all the mountains this morning, even Cranmore. More, more, more.

My friend Kathy (from MGH) is walking the ACS's Relay for Life October 16th. If you're interested in making a donation, please mail them to:

Kathy Trull
35 Silvermine Rd
Boxford, MA 01921
(Checks made out to American Cancer Society)

October 24th.