October 24, 2007

Hi Guys,

the good news for today is that Dr. Sahani (Dad's oncologist) did not find any cancer cells in his bone marrow. That means it hasn't spread throughout his entire body - definitely good news. They have rescheduled another biopsy for Friday, because the sample from the first biopsy was so necrotic (full of dead cells) that they could not even find live cancer cells for diagnosis. This indicates that the lymphoma he has is highly aggressive which is good, because these types of lymphoma have a 90% chance of going into remission after chemo.

The chemo will be hard and miserable. Dr. Sahani is determined to give Dad as high a dosage as possible of chemo to improve his chances of surviving. She is doing this because he is otherwise so healthy, and equally or almost more important, because he has such an optimistic personality and wants to live (like another 100 years or so). He will lose his hair and become very very weak. He will need someone to take care of him, and makes sure he gets up out of bed, eats, and does other simple things that will feel like climbing Mount Everest to him. He is endlessly happy that all of you want to come, but doesn't want more than one of you here at a time, because he says that would be too much for him.

It is amazing to see how Dad is dealing with this. There are moments where it is clear that he completely understands what this is about. He has openly said to me, Corinna, and Christian that he is scared shitless. There are other moments where he completely blocks out any nasty details. For example, I think he hasn't yet fully realized what the chemo will do to him. That might actually be good.

Dad, Corinna, Christian and Till just headed out to the golf course - that should keep him preoccupied for a while. That's what he really wants now, to keep busy, and he said that he can't stand to be alone right now. That from Dad.

ooma ooma, Nicky