The Boy will not be going in for chemo this weekend. He may receive radiation after all. Either way, his case is being reviewed next week on Wednesday.
This is a case of extra time served for good behavior, as my mother put it when she got an extra chemo week as part of her treatment. Not that The Boy's behavior has anything to do with it, but you see where I'm coming from. The Boy has more of the right kidney remaining than they originally thought. They believed that more kidney would be lost as a result of the tumor resection and chemo. In fact, he has 80% of the kidney left. Radiation to a smaller percentage of kidney is out of the question, and radiation is always done with this protocol if the entire kidney remains. Thus, the deliberation.
He still shows no evidence of disease, but that doesn't mean that little tumor cells couldn't be floating around. Chemo can get 'em. Radiation can get 'em too. Radiation does not mean less chemo. We still have 26 rounds of chemo to do, most likely, unless they decide to do something else, which doesn't seem likely.
We also saw the nephrologist today. She said that currently his kidney function is normal. Chemo can sometimes affect this, so he will be monitored. It is possible that he'll be fine for the rest of his life; it is possible that he may have kidney problems when he gets older. Who knows?
The good news? We get almost an entire week of no doctor visits and good counts (assuming that he doesn't pick up anything between now and then) until we hear one way or the other. If no radiation, then he'll do chemo starting next Friday.
I don't really have an opinion as to which option I'd prefer. I say, whatever keeps the tumors away.
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