She's All That - And a Giant Pastrami Sandwich

Our trip to New York was great!

First off: (and the actual reason you're reading the blog) - Our visit with Dr. Kemeny was a success. Jim's scan went well on Monday. We met with her yesterday morning to review the results of the scan.

As you know, Jim has multiple tumors on his liver and some implanted on his omentum, which is the lining of the abdominal wall. He's also got a tumor further down in his colon. One of the tumors on his omentum is gone! The tumor in his colon has shrunk! There are several tumors on his liver - we think around 7. Some of those tumors shrunk! Three of the tumors on his liver, the three biggest, actually grew. The good news is that Dr. Kemeny agreed with Dr. Haid that the biggest tumor doesn't look...right. Meaning it could be dead!


They tested Jim's CEA level at Memorial Sloan Kettering, and once they get the results, they will work with Dr. Haid to decide what to do. If his CEA level rises, they are going to put him on a different chemo regimen. If his CEA is lower or the same, they are going to stay the course and see how he's doing in a month. Dr. Haid decided to give Jim another scan next month to verify improvement.

We were delighted to hear that Dr. Kemeny agreed with literally everything that Dr. Haid said. Obviously Dr. Haid is our guy and the leader of this team, but it would be foolish not to get a second opinion.

Jim goes back to NY in April for another scan. We got the impression that Dr. Kemeny wants more improvement - faster. Jim is very young and otherwise very healthy - he's the ideal scenario for kicking Stage IV cancer and I imagine he's an interesting case for any doctor because he is so young.

Okay, that's the end of the medical portion of the report. Here's the rest of it:
Our visit with Dr. Kemeny was a totally different experience than the last time. In October there were hundreds of people in the waiting room, we weren't seen until around 12:00, and our appointment was at around 9:30 or 10:00. We had to meet with a ridiculous number of people including Dr. Kemeny's fellow, nurse, assistant and several visiting doctors from Japan that spent the day following Dr. Kemeny around. Dr. Kemeny was extremely curt and it was hard to get her to answer questions. She didn't go over the scan results with us in detail, and although she agreed with Dr. Haid's recommendations, she didn't seem happy with the fact that we wanted Jim to have treatment in Wisconsin rather than fly to Manhattan for treatment every other week. I practically had to hang on her leg to get her to stay in the room and answer the few questions we had.
This time there were around 30 people in the waiting room. They started our appointment (which was at 9:30) at 10:00, after bloodwork. We met with her Nurse Practitioner, her nurse (the same one who chewed me out when I moved Jim's appointment so he could go to Mexico), and Dr. Kemeny herself. And that was it. Everyone was friendly and took time to talk to us. Dr. Kemeny SAT DOWN ON A CHAIR to review the scan results with us. She got on the phone with Dr. Haid and came back and said "he's nice - I agree with his recommended treatment". He's NICE? This was not the same brusque eccentric that we experienced in October. She even told Jim he had the right attitude for beating cancer.

What was the difference? I have no idea. We brought Jim's sister, Judi, into the appointment with us so that she could ask questions if Dr. Kemeny dropped some kind of bombshell on us. Judi's theory is that Dr. Kemeny didn't want to mess with a "big sister" - you know, "I can pick on my brother, but you most certainly cannot". Whatever it was, the appointment was much better than we expected or even hoped it would be.

The rest of the trip:
1. Our friends Paul and Sara flew up from Atlanta to meet us. It was awesome! We've really missed Paul and Sara, so seeing them was a real treat. Sara is the ultimate planner, so we were never lack for things to do - including seeing parades for Chinese New Year, visiting a Spanish Painter exhibit at the Guggenheim (I was pretty sure before, but now I'm CERTAIN that I hate Picasso), eating at the Carnegie Deli, drinks at the Waldorf-Astoria, and lots of shopping.
2. Quite possibly the best part of the trip was the downtime we got to spend with Sara and Paul. One night we sat in their hotel room, watched golf on tv, and ate the emergency snack stash that I'd brought for the airplane. We were just too tired to move so we just didn't. We sat around and talked and rested. It was great.
3. Sara and I rode the subway. This is an event on two levels: I'm a germaphobe and I made it out alive, and also we made it to our desired location without getting lost.
4. Jim's cousin Aileen generously lent us her apartment again. Staying at her apartment is pure luxury - from the cost standpoint, but also from an ego standpoint. It's just better to get into a cab and say "Central Park West" than to say "The Hilton in Times Square", which translates to "We're tourists, can you give us a ride around the city and charge us extra for it?"
5. The day that Paul and Sara left, Judi and Mark arrived. We had a marvelous time with Judi and Mark. We went to the Museum of Natural History, which was warm and loaded with around 10,000 grade school kids. We had a great time nonetheless.
6. Judi got reservations at Robert DeNiro's restaurant, The Tribeca Grill. Just to let you know how hip Judi is, they were screening a new movie there on Tuesday night and apparently we walked in right behind Molly Shannon. Jim tried to convince the hostess that we were there for the screening, but she didn't buy it. The dress code was "Smart Casual" and even though Judi and Mark were dressed smart casual, Jim and I were dressed "smart jeans", which probably doesn't qualify us for a movie screening. I'm pretty sure they would have let Judi and Mark in if Jim and I hadn't been a denim ball and chain. :)
7. After Jim's doctor's appointment, we went back to the Carnegie Deli to celebrate with Judi and Mark. Nothing says celebration like a bowl of Kreplach soup and a giant pastrami sandwich!

We had a great time in New York and good results with Dr. Kemeny. That, my friends, is why Dr. Kemeny earned the award "She's All That - And a Giant Pastrami Sandwich". I wonder if she'll put it on her resume?

Want to see more pictures of New York? Check out our Shutterfly album.