Doctor's visit results

Generally good news: Daddy's bone scan was negative, providing pretty good evidence that the prostate cancer has not spread. (Older brother says prostate cancers are most likely to spread to bone.) The post-procedure PSA dropped significantly from Daddy's routine check a few months ago, which could mean that most of the tumor was removed during the procedure or that the tumor is very undifferentiated (which is bad--more likely to spread) and not producing PSA.

The urologist wants to send him to an oncologist for treatment recommendations, and Daddy told him he'd prefer to go to Emory, a major teaching and research facility. (Emory is 10 minutes from me and my younger brother in Atlanta.) Urologist did not have a referral to hand for an Emory oncologist but said he would get one in a week. He also wants to get the actual tissue slides back from the pathology lab he uses (which is in Cleveland) so those can be taken to the oncologist at the consultation.

So, we wait on the referral, and also discuss needs for support here. Older brother is speculating that the treatment suggestions will be either "do nothing and watch" or a hormone-suppression therapy that involves a shot every 4 months. Neither of these would force a move to the Atlanta area where we could provide more constant support for trips back and forth to doctors, etc.

I'm headed back to Atlanta tomorrow, as planned.

New Bujold a-comin'!

Almost time for The Sharing Knife: Horizon, the fourth and last planned book in the Wide Green World series by Lois Bujold. I've had an ARC since early October and have re-read it 3 times or more--I really like it, perhaps better than the other 3 WGW books. (Though Passage, #3, is a close runner-up.)

Until January 27 the entire text of the first WGW book, Beguilement, is up at Harper Collins. And the first 80 pages or so of Horizon is too--spread the word!

And if you read the sample and are frustrated by the cut-off point in the middle of a sentence, Lois has posted the remainder of that paragraph to give you a little closure.