Our first appointment with the hematology oncologist is over. Her name is Dr. Reddy, and she is an extremely nice lady. She told us that dad's cancer is very rare. When we were told it was the most common form of lymphoma, they were not talking about his specific type. There are only about 1500 cases of primary central nervous system lymphoma per year. If Dad does not make it into the clinical trial, he will be given high dose methotrexate by IV, and he will be in the hospital for three days for each treatment. After two treatments, they will repeat the MRI to see if the tumor is shrinking. It will take at least 5 treatments (10 weeks) for remission. If there is no remission after 10 weeks, they will change the chemotherapy or add radiation. If he has this treatment, he has a 60% chance of remission. We are having tests run today and tomorrow to make sure the lymphoma is only in the brain. If it is anywhere else - at all - Dad can't be in the clinical trial. He has just had a bone marrow biopsy. We are waiting for bloodwork to be run. They are scheduling an eye appointment to make sure there is no lymphoma in his eyes. We are having a petscan tomorrow to check all his lymph nodes. We must pray that no cancer shows up in any of these places. Until all of these tests are run, they can't start any treatment at all. They are going to increase his steroid dose to help decrease his swelling even further. If we qualify for the clinical trial, the treatment will last for 16 weeks. He will be in the hospital from Sunday through Wednesday or Thursday, every other week. The following week would be outpatient chemotherapy. Some things will be added as time goes on, but he will be in Nashville for the duration of the treatment. We were originally told when we got here that it would take till Monday to read the bone marrow biopsy. If Dad qualified for this trial, he must check in to the hospital on a Sunday. That would mean he wouldn't have been able to start his treatment for another week. Dr. Reddy just came out and told me that she has already reserved a bed for Dad for this Sunday. They are working on the assumption that all the tests will come back within range. She said that she would rush the results of the biopsy, and have the results back by Saturday. So far, the chances of Dad being in this clinical trial look very good. We are still praying for obvious answers, and right now it looks like the clinical trial is where we need to be. We still have to talk with Dr. Moots tonight at 5:00. He is the director of this trial. We are praising God for working all these tests out. Dad had his bone marrow biopsy 30 minutes after our appointment with the hematologist. He told me that the biopsy didn't hurt at all. He thinks they gave him a shot to numb him, but the nurse told us that the shot doesn't numb the bone. She said these are very painful, but the pain doesn't last very long. He is having all the blood work done right now. The petscan is at 11:30 tomorrow, and we are waiting to hear when his eye test will happen. God is definitely keeping us in His arms. Right now, we are really optimistic. Dr. Reddy said that she didn't see any damaged brain cells when she looked at the MRI results. She feels like Dad could get back 80% of his brain function with a few treatments. PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!! I'll keep you posted. Our prayers are working (but we always knew they would)! Love, Renee