Our first Tulane Cancer Center Appointment.

Yesterday, we met with Dr. Hana Safah, Director, Tulane Cancer Center's Stem Cell Transplant Program. In the words of Dominic, she's "effing HOT". *grinning* Beautiful woman....Indian or Pakistani... friendly, easy to talk to. This photo doesn't do her justice....trust me.

We were really impressed with the hospital. Being in the "Belly of the Beast" in New Orleans, I didn't expect such a nice, well run place. 'twas quite impressive. They were really organized and pleasant....in fact, this was probably the smoothest hospital/doctor's appointment that either of us has ever experienced.

In a nutshell:

*Doc refused to diagnose Dom with Multiple Myeloma. At this point, she's referring to it as a "Plasma Cell Disorder".

*Alot of the numbers that came from bloodwork and bone marrow biopsy from our Oncologist don't make alot of sense to her. So..... while we were there, she basically started from scratch. She had one of her guys perform a new Bone Marrow Biopsy, and did new bloodwork with additional tests.

*Said that Dom is "not suffering from systemic symptoms". This type of "Cancer of Plasma Cells" NORMALLY affect the kidneys, Red Blood Cells, White Blood Cells, Platelets and eat away at the skeleton. Dom isn't showing ANYTHING.

*IF Dom DOES, indeed have Multiple Myeloma, she said that he's a great candidate for her program. Said that many people prefer to try to "fight" this cancer, and then do the transplant as an afterthought. She wants to jump right into it, as "treatment" will "beat-up his body", and she wants him strong.

*We return next Thursday, 9/18 to get the results. Conclusively. Thank God.

All in all, it was a good visit. Didn't hear any "good news", but nothing "bad", either. I was fully expecting gloom and doom.... "get your affairs in order", etc.

******** SO.....

I won't be posting anything until next Thursday night or Friday. If you're interested in what's happening, all of the information will be posted here.

I SINCERELY APOLOGIZE for not keeping up with replying to your wonderful letters of support and encouragement. It's become rather overwhelming, so I'm going the "blog" route.

AGAIN-

THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!

Love to all of you,

Nan