Today's Appointment

Early this morning we heard from Dr. K's assistant, and she told me that she was sorry that we didn't have the page operator's number over the weekend so that we could reach Dr. K. You can bet we do now. Fortunately, when we saw Dr. K early this afternoon, he was fine with how the weekend had played out. He said it's most likely that Michael's fevers are "tumor fevers". These are common in patients with liver mets. He said that the thing to do in that case is to rule out any other source of infection, and that's exactly what the doctors at Hoag did. He said all the antibiotics were probably unnecessary, but they didn't hurt anything either.

Anyway, after reassuring us about Michael's present side effects (fatigue and sore mouth), he said he is satisfied with Michael's progress. He gave us a schedule of appointments for the next six months, provided that Michael remains stable and on the Sutent. Michael has another ten days of taking the Sutent before he gets a two-week break. Dr. K said he would probably feel pretty good during those two weeks. Something to look forward to.

We asked Dr. K's assistant to process Michael's extension for his state disability and that wasn't a problem. I think it's obvious that he's not ready to return to the type of work he does. He just doesn't have the physical strength and stamina to travel and perform just yet. We think it's likely that he'll be on disability through the end of the year. If the Sutent is working, then perhaps he'll be able to return to work in January. We'll just have to wait and see.