I am a little wobbly this morning so I hope it all comes together and makes sense.
I had a chest X-Ray on Tuesday evening and then saw Dr. Lu on Wednesday morning. He says it appears that the tumor shrunk again with the third round of chemo I did in December. I had a CT scan Wednesday afternoon that should confirm that. That's good news.
Dr. Lu confirmed what Dr. Aye told us after the wedge; that spot on the right side did not look cancer-involved and Thursday afternoon one of Dr. Aye's PAs said the same thing. More great news!!
I am a little scared and wanted some time to settle into the idea of losing my left lung, but both Dr. Aye and Dr. Lu disagree. Dr. Lu said if I was his mom he would tell me to take the first possible date and get the cancer removed. Dr. Aye said "Let's get it out so you can go on with the rest of your life".
So, my lung resection will be at Swedish on February 7th.
Dr. Lu and Dr. Aye had a peer-to-peer conversation about the anatomy of the tumor. They are looking at where the blood vessels go to see if Dr. aye can do a lobectomy or if he has to take the entire left lung. He says its better that a 50% the whole left side will have to come out. I appreciate that that was a thoughtful decision.
As I know more, I will let you know. Thank you for hanging with me. Thank you for kind notes, funny and/or inspirational texts, and any small check-ins. Thanks to people like Amy and Dave who cleared massive amounts of snow from my driveway! Every contact bolsters my flagging courage and helps me believe I really can do this.
Thank you all!!
Friday, January 13, 2017
Monday, January 9, 2017
The Wedge
Mark and I traveled over to Seattle last week and I had the wedge surgery on Tuesday. It went well.
We checked into Swedish at 5:30 a.m. and they did the procedure about 7:30. The surgeons used small instruments that they controlled through a video monitor to cut out the wedge of lung and then retrieve it. It made the procedure much less invasive.
At the end they inserted a chest tube, The job of the tube is to help keep the lung inflated and to drain anything like extra blood from the incisions. It stayed in until an hour before they discharged us on Wednesday.
We spent one night in the hospital and Mark got to stay in the room with me. Everything went fine. I had very little pain at all and I am healing up really well.
We still do not know what the stuff is/was. But it is gone from my chest now.
Once again I want to thank those who continue to stay in touch with me; who send me tests, or e-mails, or comment on this blog. Some days that contact is what keeps me going. It certainly brightens any day that a friend gets in touch. I know you are all busy with your personal and professional lives, so your reaching out means the world to us! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
We checked into Swedish at 5:30 a.m. and they did the procedure about 7:30. The surgeons used small instruments that they controlled through a video monitor to cut out the wedge of lung and then retrieve it. It made the procedure much less invasive.
At the end they inserted a chest tube, The job of the tube is to help keep the lung inflated and to drain anything like extra blood from the incisions. It stayed in until an hour before they discharged us on Wednesday.
We spent one night in the hospital and Mark got to stay in the room with me. Everything went fine. I had very little pain at all and I am healing up really well.
We still do not know what the stuff is/was. But it is gone from my chest now.
Once again I want to thank those who continue to stay in touch with me; who send me tests, or e-mails, or comment on this blog. Some days that contact is what keeps me going. It certainly brightens any day that a friend gets in touch. I know you are all busy with your personal and professional lives, so your reaching out means the world to us! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
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