Rainy, rainy, rainy....

What a gloooomy day. It is drizzling here in Washington -- that kind of rain that isn't really much moisture but just makes everything dreary. Makes me want to go back to sleep.....Kurt is dozing already! It is weird to have Sept. 11 be rainy -- 8 years ago, it was such a beautiful day. Like everyone, I have such vivid memories of that day. As most of you know, I was working a few blocks from White House at the time. After the attacks, the military established a perimeter around the WH -- my office was across the street from the edge of the perimeter. There were very courteous Marines with very large guns watching us all day long. How fortunate we are to live in a country where a military presence is a source of comfort and protection, rather than a indicator of oppression.

Ok, so chemo underway. Same old, same old. BUT. After chemo today, we head down to the University of Maryland to do the last test necessary to start the liver-directed treatments. Just as a reminder, Kurt is going to start on a therapy called SirSpheres. They are little beads with radiation in them, injected directly into the liver. The beads go into the blood vessels in the liver and the blood vessels around the tumors and emit radiation right to the tumors over about two weeks, as they breakdown. Here's a picture:



Kurt will get three doses - right lobe, left lobe, whole liver. The goal is to eliminate tumors entirely in one lobe of the liver. If that works, then the surgeons at the National Institute of Health that we met with believe that the rest of the tumors can be surgically removed. Which would be amazing and practically unheard of for cancer this advanced.

Anyhow, Kurt met with the UMD radiologist earlier this week to do a preliminary scan. That doctor was cautiously optimistic that Kurt would do well with the SirSpheres, because his liver tumors are so small. The beads only emit radiation over a small area, so the fact that the tumors are little improves the chances of killing the whole tumor, rather than having some kill around the edges but portions of the tumor untouched. Today, they will do some kind of trial run injection -- no radiation -- just to see how the injection will flow into his liver. I think it is sort of a mapping-type exercise. Then, if everything goes well, the first SirSpheres injection will be in 2-4 weeks.

Kurt will, ideally, continue with chemo during this process, although there may be more breaks and doses may change. So we are not totally sure what to expect, other than we are going to kick the crap out of these tumors!

In other news, did you watch the Health Care speech on Wednesday? It took Kurt and I about twice as long to watch it, because we had to keep pausing and shouting at the TV. Guess what government takeover of health care is NOT like -- car insurance. Not at all. Honestly, that was the single weirdest analogy I have heard yet. But, at least the Republicans managed to behave like sleep-deprived children. Am I the only one in favor of a giant Congressional mulligan? All of you just go home. Re-do. This isn't a partisan thing -- I am just tired of the entire Congress. Let's just start over.

Ok, better nip that rant in the bud before I really go off. We should be done here by noon and the off to Maryland. More later today on the outcome of that test.