New doctor is great

Mike and I were both impressed with the new oncologist. 

She spent a lot of time with us.  

She put missing information into his record (really, his medications weren't in there!).  
She told us what she was thinking, with pros and cons, AND asked what we were thinking.  
She told us what vaccinations Mike should get (flu) and not get (shingles). AND why.
She even explained why his kidney function is now normal instead of stage three kidney disease.
The enlarged lymph nodes can either be left as "wait and watch", or Mike can have the anti-body treatment to more actively work on keeping them from growing. She is going to order a PET scan. The scan will "light up" any areas where the cancer is active. We expect Mike will take the anti-body treatment once every two months; the scan might indicate if something more aggressive is called for.
His white blood cell counts are back to normal, and she believes this means the treatments have cleared the cancer from the bone marrow. But Mike still feels weak, so he will get a blood test on two specific items. The doc said any fatigue from the chemo should have passed by now.

Gratitude: This has been a beautiful summer.  Even September has been nice, with a couple of much needed rain days. We enjoyed the blood moon eclipse together. 

Wednesday, September 2: Wait and Watch

Doctor said, "Your enlarged lymph nodes have not decreased.  I just don't know what to think about that. You seemed to have had more response when we had you in the hospital for that week of really hard chemo."

I asked him to explain just where the nodes were, confirming that two near the trachea were gone. They are in the abdomen and pelvis.  "One is 15 millimeters, we'd much rather see centimeters. We'll just have to wait and see what happens." His blood counts were just a little low still, but much better than six months ago.

Then the doc switched to, "So, are you going to watch my sabbatical?"

Me: "You're having a sabbatical?

"My run for Governor."  A little political talk, mostly felt like he was practicing his stump speech.  Then back to Mike with, "I'll see you in about a month." As he was charging out the door I stopped him, "Hey, can he have the PICC remove?"
"Yes, sure, we will do that right here."

We went to scheduling, got an appointment (switching to a different doctor in the practice), and Mike got the PICC out.

Next week we will get to see the old farts -- I mean good old friends from Mike's professional days!

Wait and watch.  I prefer live and love.