Radiation Oncologist...

Yep...we met with one of those. He was very nice. We liked him. We liked his fancy, up-to-date, state of the art, clean, quiet (well, before Claire got there) office. We were greeted as we walked into the office by a lovely woman who knew Kyle's name, though we had never been there before. She couldn't have been more accommodating. She even turned over the remote control in the waiting room so that Claire could watch tv...I bet she was regretting that decision when Claire chose, "Clifford the Big Red Dog"...does that cartoon have the most annoying voices or is it just me? We waited and watched "Clifford" for about 10 minutes before we were taken back to meet with the Dr.

After getting all of Kyle's vitals, the nurse took us into a room and gave us a bunch of information about radiation and told us a little bit about what would happen if Kyle's goes there for his radiation treatments. Meanwhile, Claire made a huge mess, of a clean office, with some crackers I gave her.

The Dr. then came in and got a little info from us before asking us about Kyle's CT scan and ultrasound. I told him that I had a disk with both scans on it if he wanted to see them himself. He was very impressed with my preparation (insert pat-on-back here) and he excused himself to go and review the scans. He came back in, listened to Kyle's lungs very thoroughly (for which we were grateful...Acinic Cell can metastasize to the lungs) and then escorted us to another room (with different equipment).

In the new room, he carefully examined the area where the tumor was removed. He pressed a bit too hard and the area (which was FULL of fluid...it's called a seroma) started to drain through a small opening in the incision. The Dr. then stood there and drained that sucker for a good 10 minutes. There was a lot of (clear) fluid...most likely saliva that hasn't rerouted itself...and it ran like a river. When that disgusting chore was over, Kyle felt much better.

The Dr. gave us his opinion, but said that he would do whatever Huntsman recommended. He talked to Dr. Jones (Kyle's ENT/surgeon) while we were there and since Dr. Jones feels like he removed the entire tumor, there were clear margins, and no lymph node involvement...the oncologist thinks that Kyle should hold off on the radiation. No radiation? Ummm...ok...but, what about the cancer? He thinks the cancer is gone, but there is no way to be sure. No way. And since Acinic Cell is so rare, there isn't a standard of care. Some doctors do nothing, some do radiation, some do chemo & radiation. There is just no set way of handling this. The Dr. thinks Kyle should follow up with Dr. Jones once a month to make sure nothing else is growing. Then, if it does come back, more surgery and THEN radiation. Hmmmm....we don't know what to think about this. Acinic Cell is very recurrent....VERY. It comes back. It is not nice. It may take 1, 5, 10, 20 years, but it will come back. Maybe we should annihilate the enemy now, while we know where it is. Take it out. Bring it down. Smoke it. Kill it. Finish it off.

Remember the old adage: Better safe than sorry?

We are traveling to Huntsman Cancer Institute in SLC on Tuesday. I want some answers and decisions made. Heaven help me, but I want someone to boss us around and tell us WHAT to do!


*Bubble of fluid (most likely saliva) under his ear, called a seroma. DEE-scusting. Picture is horrible. Taken by cell phone in a moving car. This was taken AFTER the doctor drained it, so you can imagine what it looked like before.