recently added new Medical Mystery Tour dates

not the news we were hoping for from the pathology studies of the tumor.

it seems there were both benign and malignant cells found. Dr. Nemechek used the word "malignant" about 8 times and "cancer" once.

he said there are three approaches possible when those results are obtained.

one was to go in and take a batch more stuff out. he felt pretty strongly that that was at present uncalled for.

he also said that chemotherapy wasn't appropriate.

the third recourse is radiation, which I got the sense he feels is indicated.

he's ordering a PET scan of the whole body, too check for the cells "metastasizing" (hard to type and harder to say) into other areas of the body. it's the latest and greatest scan, I hear.

I said, so, give me a snapshot of what the radiation treatment looks like.

it's not much like other types of treatments for, say, stomach or breast...the neck is such a small area, and that limits the total dose. it's six weeks every day (five days a week, I find out), and the most pronounced side effect is, after three or three and a half weeks, there's some tiredness, fatigue.

there usually is in the middle of my summer...

it can't even start, he said, until I'm well healed (already well heeled) in five weeks or so. I have an appointment with Radiology Tuesday morning the 4th they'll watch for an earlier one) and they're trying to precert the insurance for the PET scan now.

we all kind of hoped that there wouldn't be a bad cell for miles.

my construct for a bit was that, since I reread the part of the operative report that said once the tumor was out...felt more like a tuber...there was nothing else that felt abnormal...that the radiation therapy was more preemptive, more just in case, as Dr. Nemechek felt like he "got it all". that that was more the case than "Scott has cancer."

Dr. Stewart Greisman had a more refined construct.

he said that there could be little pockets of malignant cells close to the site, and that radiation would really reduce the chances they could turn into something.

I can live with that construct.

everyone has small troves of malignant cells. it's what they are, and aren't, doing that is the determinant.

all along, I heard nothing but, we have to take the tumor out to know if there is malignancy in it. no other way of finding out exists.

if something shows up in the PET scan, I say, go ahead and panic. I would. but I also say, in case someone is taking odds and making bets, smart money says nothing will.

then, if I do the radiation, there will be no one to say, now, my boy, you're malignancy free.

instead...as we would have anyway..we watch.

but Stewart agreed that, throughout this Tour extension, until some scan shows something wrong...we have to think, I'm ok. I do the radiation, and then it's Condition Green until someone sees something.

and, smart money says Nemechek got it all, the radiation will dispirit the few possible cells left, and smart money says I'm ok.

as far as the summer goes, I may be kind of tired for a couple of weeks. and I won't be staying anywhere out of town for six weeks. if I had to have help moving equipment, if I had to sit down for a Little Bear gig, if I had to take breaks at Fanny's...I see those things as possibilities.

I don't see changing current summer plans.

it was a beautiful morning outside, and I'm feeling better than ever today. and I get to. and I get to enjoy what there is to enjoy these days.

truth is...I'm considering sneaking in some rehearsals after this weekend.

I like a good walk in the woods, but I'm sorry I'm not out of them yet. still, anyone would be a fool who was persuaded to bet that things are not going to be allright.