The Sit Down

Hi! Back from an awesome trip to visit my sister's family and meet little Frances. Frances is sweet, beautiful, focused, and has the most heart-melting pout. Miles did great on the plane and loves giving his cousin "gentle touches." The weather was blessedly cool (Richmond feels like walking through hot chicken broth). Babies, by the way, are the opposite of cancer!

So, the Big Sit Down with the surgeon was yesterday, and all went well. Big love and hugs to Joe's three Ass-ociates who came from C-ville! Joe says the surgeon is our age, honest, direct, confident, and relaxed. He agrees that chemo prior to surgery is the way to go, and the exact course of treatment will be determined after Monday, when Joe gets a PET Scan and an internal ultrasound. We'll know the cancer stage after those test results come back, too. The PET Scan doesn't sound like much fun at all, AND it means Joe can't have a single beer at the Phish show the night before, but maybe that's a good exercise in restraint. ;) For the ultrasound, though, he gets Fentanyl, or, as the surgeon put it, "what Michael Jackson killed himself with." Debatable. Either way, I'm looking forward to hearing Joe's lovely brain on Fentanyl. When I walked in after the colonoscopy, my loopy man informed me that "It was supposed to be Elvis's birthday party." Indeed!