The spinning platelets

TL;DR: Saw the oncologist. He wasn't too concerned about Vic's low platelets. Will monitor.

We saw the oncologist (Dr. Maymani) Friday (June 21) about Vic's platelets. He said the platelets had dropped again—to 53. Mmmm. Not great.

He said the diagnosis was "probable ITP" (ITP = immune thrombocytopenia). He said ITP is a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning that "we look at everything else, and if they come up negative, we say "probably ITP."

The treatment for ITP is generally steroids, but Dr. Maymani said if there is no bleeding from the nose, mouth or other ... you know ... orifices, they don't usually treat it. That said, if Vic has to have another surgery, Dr. Maymani said they could either do some sort of treatment or he can have another infusion.

Dr. Maymani also addressed the pathology report. He concurred that, if they decide something more needs to be done, surgery is the gold standard. Anything else (such as radiation or chemo and radiation instead of surgery) would be subpar. As I've said before, it's nice when doctors who have a vested interest in one treatment option (in this case, chemo) steer you toward a different treatment option. It makes you trust them more, and it puts you more at ease to get the other treatment.

Dr. Maymani looked at Vic's tongue and said it looked well-healed. This is also good to hear, because it hasn't even been two weeks since the surgery, and Vic is having a smooth recovery. (Not that it's been an easy recovery, but at least it's been fairly quick.) This also gives us more hope that if he has to have more surgery, maybe it will also go smoothly and he won't spend a year suffering, as he did with the first cancer.

We will see Dr. Maymani again in a week to check the platelet count. By then, we should have more information about the next treatment steps, and if surgery is indicated, Dr. Maymani will start Vic on a treatment to increase the platelets, if needed.

Dr. Maymani assured us that, even though there are a lot of things going on right now, he has contingency plans for all of them. You might say he's spinning a lot of plates.

I don't even want to tell you the ridiculous amount of time I spent
trying to find a free image or clip art of a man spinning plates just so
I could justify the title of this post. Nor do I want to tell you how long
I tried to Photoshop this image to put different words on the plates.
Just pretend the lady is Dr. Maymani, and the plates say stuff like
"steroids" and "Rituximab" and "immunoglobulin."

While I was searching for a man spinning plates, I remembered a video of a woman balancing ever-increasingly large stick-like things. You know—that video. I don't even want to tell you the ridiculous amount of time I spent trying to find that video. I couldn't figure out why I was so obsessed with locating this video until it hit me that one of the things that is really challenging me right now is finding balance. Well, I found the video, and I watched it. It was so soothing, and it just helped me finish off the day feeling serene and calm.

I hope it does the same for you.

Have a great week, everyone!