The Short Version: It's not scar tissue.
On to the Drama: I saw my endocrinologist on Monday. He noticed a mass in my neck, around the same area where my cancer had been. We did an ultrasound and drew labwork. Today he called me back to tell me that my tumor marker was too high, a sign that the mass in my neck is an angry, cancerous lymph node. This was not the plan.
The New Plan: The Hater is visiting our friend, Angry Dissenter, in Nevada. I had planned to fly out tomorrow after work to join the fun. That's still our plan; The Hater and I will drive back to OKC and should return Monday early evening. I work Tuesday. Wednesday morning (July 12th) I have a PET/CT scan scheduled. This will show us if there are multiple angry lymph nodes. Those scans will have to be evaluated by a radiologist, and I don't know when that will happen. Within a couple of days I should hear back from either the endocrinologist or my surgeon. And sometime soon after that I'll have another surgery to remove the angry nodes.
The Cut and Dry: This stinks, and I'm not looking forward to doing this all over again.
Prognosis: The good news about this kind of cancer is that having positive lymph node involvement does NOT change my good pronosis. There is no question that this type of cancer is both treatable and curable, but I'm just going to need another surgery to get there... which is very frustrating for me right now.
And: And if it wasn't bad enough to be told that I still have cancer, it looks like I'll have to miss my 10 year high school reunion and trip home that we'd planned for August. And, as long as I'm complaining, I'm really bummed about a bad haircut I got over the weekend.
The Good News: My hair will grow back. The cancer, after we remove the angry lymph nodes, will not grow back. There will be another reunion.
My Plea: Sweet, wonderful friends, without your support we would not have made it this far into our adventure with the c-bomb. Please keep those smoke signals, prayers, or well-wishes headed this way. We need all the good vibrations that we can get.
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7 comments:
As you point out, this is easily beatable, so you'll kick its ass in no time. My thoughts are winging your way.
Thanks yall. Sometime we're all going to have to get together with a case of something and talk about how easy we used to have it... when life was simpler and all we had to worry about was a little cancer.
I have been out of town for multiple reasons and did not get this news on the homefront until last night. We hate that this is happening to you..or anybody. Ah, medical adventures.Hang in there, this will be history soon.
Do you need any good books? I have tons (yes, tons) that I would love to send your way. What do you like to read. Having Amazon and Barnes and Noble online is just like having bookstores in the burg. I go abit overboard. Email your reading requests to:
lastnameabbreviationforprofession@bellsouth.net. I am almost as fast as Amazon.com. (I still have their boxes)
We think of you both each day and have a ceremony to send good vibes yourway.
We are going to a wedding in Indianapolis this weekend. I've never been there and it should be a bash. It will be at the Indiannapolis Art Museum and should be quite a shindig. We'll not forget to send those vibes your way though.
VolMom
Thinking about you.... Keep us posted.
Oh G, I'm so sorry that the c-bomb is still lurking about!
But I'm SOOOOOOO happy to hear that it's completely treatable and curable. We just gotta get you through the surgery and on to the happy stuff. ;)
And trust me, the well wishes never stopped flowing!!
Don't lose all your money in Vegas.
I didn't see your post to Kasey either! I'll have to show him, it will crack him up. I'm glad we have a plan, and if you need me to, I'll mirror the bad hair cut. Not a problem! I will be seeing you really soon now, let me know what you want to eat, and I'll work on the book while you are gone...
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