MEDICAL UPDATE: Its been awhile since Ive shared with my Facebook Friends and Family what is going on with my health. So today, I want to share with you all what is CURRENTLY going on with me and what it means. Before I go any further some of what I have to say, may sound discouraging, or be cause for concern, however, OVERALL (if you have a chance to read through this whole post) the news is more Positive than negative. A couple of weeks ago, I found out that a potential tumor- that my physicians have been following in my left lung for about a year now- has been growing (based on the latest CT scan). While, the (probable) tumor has not grown much at all (8mm to 10mm over the last year) both my oncologist and thoracic surgeon have recommended that I have surgery on my lung to remove what appears to be a tumor. (By the way, I say that it appears to be a tumor because there is a VERY small chance that it may not be Cancer BUT that is highly improbable because of a) my history with this disease and b) because tumors that are not cancerous rarely grow in the way this one has.) This will be my second time in less than two years having a major lung surgery to remove Cancer from my lungs (or in this case one lung). The last time, I actually had 14 spots or nodules removed, I believe, at least, 6 of which were cancerous. In contrast, this time, I will only be having ONE tumor removed. Which may lead one to wonder, if you had 14 nodules last time on BOTH of your lungs why would they open up your chest again for only ONE this time? That is a reasonable question and the answer I found out is that it is the LOCATION of this particular tumor that is potentially problematic. The tumor although relatively small is positioned right on the corner of an intersection (my word for it, not the medical term) of the branches (again, my lay-mans term for what it looks like) ***heres a link to some illustrated picture of a pair of lungs on webmd webmd/lung/picture-of-the-lungs The reason why the location is important is that if the tumor grows even a little bit more the chance is good that it will start going into the branches. If that happens, and the surgeons wait until THEN to remove the tumor there is a good chance that the branches will be removed which would cause me to lose the upper left lobe of my lung. This would mean that I would lose roughly 20% of the lung capacity of my left lung. (For the record, as bad as that sounds, people can live functional lives sometimes even with literally ONLY ONE LUNG! So, while Im not eager to lose any part of my lungs, its not as disastrous as it might sound.) By acting soon, (the Surgery Date will be WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6 at MASS GENERAL HOSPITAL in BOSTON) the thoracic surgeon, Dr. John Wain (yep, John Wain (sp?, I know) will be doing my surgery!! How do you like that Pilgrim!!??) believes that there is still about an 80-85% chance that I will be able to save most of my lung functioning (if successful, I would only lose about 3-5% of my current lung capacity). In contrast, if I waited another 3 months the Doctor feels the chance that I would lose the upper left lobe of my lung would increase to about 30-40% chance and get subsequently higher the longer I would wait. Knowing that, I made the decision to have the surgery soon. I have been told the surgery will be about 3 hours and I will be in the hospital anywhere from 4-8 days. Recovery will take awhile. About 6 weeks before Im up and around and able to start lifting things more then a gallon of milk in weight. I wont be able to drive until Im weened off my pain medication (which the nurse estimated would take a few weeks). Of course, I know that some of you might be wondering what does this latest setback mean for my overall health and my chances in overcoming or surviving my fight with Cancer. The truth is its impossible to answer anything with absolute certainty when dealing with this dreaded disease. However, when I was first diagnosed with this disease in January of 2006, many of the statistics indicated that I would not be here anymore (but as anyone who has been spammed by me on FB lately can tell you, I am most certainly still here). Then, when the cancer returned a second time and had spread from its place of origin- the tibia on my left leg (when it was still there) and metastasized to both of my lungs my chances for survival when down dramatically. Frankly, (I can now admit) my oncologist Dr. David Harmon (a recognized leader in his profession) felt my chances of survival were pie in the sky (his words) when he first met me back 5 years ago in October of 2008. However, now, after almost two years of aggressive chemotherapy and multiple surgeries, Dr. Harmon told me, just a couple of weeks ago, that, while he can NOT guarantee any outcome at this point in time, that he NOW feels that there is a reasonable hope that I could someday 100% beat this disease! What both Dr. Harmon and Dr. Wain have stressed to me, and I want to stress to everyone reading this is that even though the surgery and recovery will be very hard, they are NOT a sign that I am in imminent danger or that Im even losing my fight. In fact, this surgery gives me a CHANCE that this COULD be a final knock-out blow to the disease in my body. Dr. Wain believes that is a definite POSSIBILITY because its been a year and a half since my last major lung surgery and during that time there has only been ONE identifiable spot in ONE of my lungs. Apparently, this could be an indication that this MAY BE the last of the original tumors, one that was so microscopic that they were not able to spot it when the did the previous surgery last April 2012. Dr. Wain further explained that the reason why it is important and potentially hopeful if it is an original tumor is that if the cancer was likely to come back full force it would be definitely UNUSUAL for it to only appear in ONE spot and show NO tumors any where else in my lungs after a year and a half without chemo or surgeries. So, I guess, a sort-of bottom line is that I have to deal with (at least) one more brutal and difficult hurdle BUT this is not viewed by my Doctors as a DOWNGRADE to my chances for overall survival. In fact, it is the opposite they feel after this surgery MORE CONFIDENT that my CHANCES of a complete victory over this disease are POSSIBLE (not guaranteed, yet). If any of you have any questions, concerns, comments, jokes, or Facebook game requests you want to send me between now and the time of the surgery I will do my best to reply. If I do not, its probably either because Im busy, tired, absent-minded or a jerk.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 17:24:47 +0000
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