Brain Age, BART and Biopsies

Kyle here -- just getting this started :)

We had a great meeting with Dr. Ko at UCSF yesterday. Dr. Ko is the GI Oncologist that Dr. Javeed works with. He was the perfect combination of brains, personality and hope. Oh... and he loves whitewater rafting so you know our dad was loving him :)

As most of you probably heard, the Bay Bridge had some issues the night before the appointment so Dad, Sheryl and Whitney drove to Walnut Creek and BARTed in. They missed the Civic Center stop helping Sheryl play Brain Age on Dad's Nintendo DS and ended up going to 16th St. and Mission... I think it's safe to say they were all a little frazzled by the liveliness of the mission. I picked them up and drove them to UCSF (just 2 blocks from my apartment).

The best takeaway from the appointment was that we don't need to wait on the results of the lung biopsy to start chemo. Chemo can start on Monday - finally! Dr. Ko is assuming that the lung biopsy will come back negative... but the chemo treatment plan will be the same anyway. He's got his chemo kit ready to go -- just need to get a few DVDs and he's pretty much set.

Since there was no leaving the city by automobile, I BARTed back with the others and am still trying to determine the best strategy for getting home (when and how are the two primary questions) -- tangent.

The lung biopsy was this morning... and it went extremely well. There were concerns about the size (it's super small) and whether or not they'd even be able to get enough to test. They figured they'd have to poke around a bunch of times and in between multiple scans, but they got it on the first try which was awesome. He had to be awake during the procedure because they would have to rely on him to modify his breathing if needed (freaky)... turns out he is a brilliant breather :)

We go to Dr. Javeed tomorrow for the results of the biopsy -- looking forward to putting the whole little lung blip behind us and getting this show on the road!