TGIF (?)

Thursdays used to be the highlight of my week - the day I got to write my column. From now on, they key day is going to be Friday.

That's the day I will get chemo treatments at a doc's office in Albany, starting next Friday - six weeks and one day after my surgery. The plan is for me to get chemical called gemcitabine intravenously for about 90 minutes for the next three Fridays, then take a week off. Then repeat the cycle.

After that, I will go to Boston for another CT scan. If the cancer hasn't spread, I will be scheduled for the high-dose radiation treatment known as "cyberknife'' there about a month later to try to shrink the existing tumor. Then more chemo.

They tell me that gemcitabine is usually fairly well tolerated, which means that hopefully I will continue to actually feel better as the surgery wound continues to heal even as the chemo saps some of my energy. We'll see.