Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Suspicious Mass is Cancer

After I called twice looking for results, the nurse finally called me at 4:20PM today and said that the results had just been posted and that the biopsy was "positive" which means the 2 cm mass is cancer. Darn it, not the best news.

Then the nurse said that my oncologist will talk to the thoracic surgeon tomorrow to see if we should go ahead with the surgery on Friday, and that "someone will call me tomorrow." You know, that just is not good enough. I need to talk to my oncologist in person. I have four blobs of this stuff in me and about a million questions.

Early this evening, I had a long talk with my old friend Debbie who suggested that I consider finding a sarcoma specialist, which is advice that she found after surfing the web for me today. She also suggested that I should set up an appointment with my oncologist, but by the time I called over there, everything was shut down for the night.

You know what, though? Lou and I surfed the web for awhile tonight and found that in 2008 Duke opened a sarcoma specialty center, and they actually list leiomyosarcoma as one of the 50 things they treat. We got the phone number and we are going to call there first thing tomorrow.

So, thank you, Debbie!

If anyone else wants to surf the web for me, please feel free. I can use the help. Darn it, I want the best treatment possible because I am not done having fun yet!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cancer sucks!! Cancer really really sucks and it really sucks that you have to go through this Karen.

You are doing the footwork and being so pro-active and asking others for help and to me you are a magnificent example how a human being faces an enormous challenge.

Hang in there. I will continually keep praying and sending positive healing energy your way.

Carla

Anonymous said...

Karen!

Darn it! Crap!

OK, I'm done...

Just know that your fan club here in Cary is rooting for you. We love the snot out of you! (Old southern saying)

I know the "not-knowing" part is the hardest. I hope that you get in touch with someone today. If you need some help navigating through the Duke system (like any buracracy) let me know.

I am here to help...

Unknown said...

Ok...Dummy here forgot to sign off...
This is your friend, Robyn...