Hey there:

 

     UCSF called back and they do feel the tumors are larger.  They want to scan Dad again in a month, and that may be able to happen up here. 

 

     With Stanford, oh how one’s perspective can change.  Christina has been corresponding by email with Dr. Hancock there and he cleared some things up for us:  Stanford were the ones to develop the Cyber-Knife, and they still feel that there was improvement in the tumors.  The very optimistic and personal meeting with Dr. Kashani at UCSF on 11/19, along with our perception at the time that Stanford was just going through the motions, had us ready to dump Stanford, and we’ve kept them on hold as we’ve acquired the second opinion from UCSF.  Now it seems we should be at Stanford – especially since they can bother to reply to communication on a consistent basis.  We’re not going anywhere too soon, but we have something to hope for in Stanford’s willingness to try the Cyber-Knife on his brain (the spine tumor is apparently not a pressing issue at this time).  Christina is checking with Eureka to see when they can do another followup scan, then we can get with Stanford and talk about getting down there for treatment again – maybe around the end of the month or early January.

 

     In the meantime, Dad has been tired.  The trip down south this week, combined with a couple of restless nights right before it, had him totally pooped out when he got back, and he’s recovering from it slowly. 

 

     If both UCSF and Stanford were to say, “let’s scan him again in January”, I’d really feel like the writing is on the wall regarding Dad’s status.  It’s hard to write that, not because I’m not right there, dealing with those thoughts constantly, but because I don’t want to dash anyone’s hopes in any way.  I feel strongly about keeping it real though, and that is largely, if not entirely, due to the trust and appreciation I have in and for the community who receives this update.  Dad and Christina don’t read this, so I wanted to be clear about the landscape as it appears to me.  We hope for the best, and it’s very important to me to be prepared for the worst.  As you should know from reading other updates from me, it’s so beneficial for me to be able to express myself here that I make a point of doing it. 

 

     Thanks so much for all the support.