And now for something completely different...

I will not be moving to New York. I am staying in Baltimore for now. Rob will continue her studies (Masters in Occupational Therapy)  in New York and will stay in the apartment on her own. She is fortunate enough to be staying in the same building as Phil and Howard.  

Mike stays with me most of the week but has the luxury of moving between my apartment and Diana's town house. He continues to enjoy his job. 

In the meantime I'm going to enjoy my chemo break and do a bit of traveling. 

Carpe Diem.

Chemo 23 (Round 8)

The chemo session went well. I got the Alimta and the Avastin. My weight is stable and the blood work was ok. The urine protein went up very slightly but no changes were made to my regimen for this day.

Now for the great news...I am going to be taking a chemo break until April 2nd, 2014. After discussions with my current oncologist, my 2 consultant oncologists and my radiologist consultant they have all agreed that a break would be ok. I will get rescanned on April 1st and that will determine if I can continue my break or get chemo on April 2nd.

What precipitated this request was the report about my needle biopsy that was done on December 11th, 2013. All 5 samples taken from the active area showing up on my PET scan came back cancer free. While this doesn't mean that I am totally cancer free at this time it is overall good news. So...

Definately Carpe Diem.

P.S. Can you say travel time?

This is what the needle biopsy yielded

"January 20, 2014

Dear Mr. Suskin,

The purpose of this letter is to confirm our conversation that took place over the phone last week in reference to the genetic sequencing of recently acquired lung tissue. Upon conclusion of your biopsy on 12/11/13, five (5) core biopsy samples were transported to Champions Oncology’s laboratory. Two (2) of the samples were immediately prepared for shipment to Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGD) for the purpose of whole exome sequencing while the remaining three (3) samples were frozen.

On 12/30/13 I received an email from P60 informing me that the pathologist did not find any tumor in the two initial samples provided. When I informed my scientist of the situation, she had the remaining three core biopsy samples sent to an outside pathologist for review. The plan was to submit whatever sample(s) came back as positive for tumor. We received word last week that the remaining three samples also did not contain tumor. For this reason we are unable to complete whole exome sequencing on your tissue samples.

As you are aware, I have requested that your payment of $”Non of your Business” be returned to your bank account. Of course, should another opportunity arise during which it is appropriate for Champions Oncology to obtain an additional tissue sample, I’d be happy to facilitate such testing again at that time.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions surrounding the information provided above."

I will explain more soon...

Carpe Diem.