Dr. Webster aka Dr. Amazing - Jan. 19, 2011

On the morning of Wednesday January 19th we finally met someone who cared. His name, Dr. Marc Webster. The amount of hope this man inspired was phenomenal. Here's a link to what other patients have said about him:

Rate My MD - Dr. Marc Webster

I think I'll rate him after this is all over.

So, Dr. Webster is a medical oncologist aka chemo guy. He said he doesn't like to sugar coat things and will tell us everything if we want to hear it. Of course we said YES.

Here's what he said:

• The biopsy showed a squamous cell, looks like it came from the nasopharynx
  
  
• The cancer is wrapping itself around some blood vessels
  
  
• It is nasopharyngeal cancer Stage 4B

Stop! At this point he said something amazing. Dr. Webster said, "It is curable." Three simple words said with palpable conviction. Yipee!

And then he explained further:

• Head and neck cancers are staged differently
  
  
• Instead of just stage 1, 2, 3, 4 - at stage 4, there is also A, B and C
  
  
• Stage C means it's spread to the rest of the body, but stage B means it hasn't

Just on a side note, even if it were Stage 4C, I would still think it's curable. I started seeing a councellor and in 1996 she found out that every lymph node in her body was cancerous. She had over 100 tumors all throughout her body. The doctor said she had 2 weeks to live.

Obviously she's still here today.

Back to Dr. Amazing, I mean Webster:

• The bone scan showed 2 tiny specks in the ribs with low grade activity. This can be caused by stretching or mild bruising so could be completely benign. This needs to be followed up with a PET scan.
  
  
• Radiation is the best treatment for nasopharyngeal cancer
  
  
• Chemotherapy eliminates any micro particles of cancer throughout the body
  
  
• Radiation can't start for another 3 weeks so he wants to start chemo right now
  
  
• He will not sacrifice the radiation though
  
  
• If chemo is too hard on the body, he will stop it
  
  
• Chemo should start within the next 2 days