Stage III

The tests came out clear -- brain MRI, bone scan, CT scan. So it's official -- Ma is Stage III, not Stage IV. More specifically, she's Stage IIIB.

We met with the tumor board at the hospital Wednesday. I was expecting only about six people there. But no, there must have been about 20 -- surgeons, oncologists, radiologists, pathologists, two medical residents, a dietitian, a social worker, the director of the cancer center, and who knows who else. They basically agreed with the chemo treatment recommended by Stanford and that no further surgery is needed at this point. They also said that the liver doesn't look cancerous in the PET scan. This contradicts what Dr. Guardino at Stanford said. The radiologist said that "a liver with cancer doesn't look like that." So I was pretty confident going into Friday that Ma would be "only" Stage III.

Chemo will start on Wednesday.