What Happened on Friday?

On Friday, Patsy woke up with what we thought was the swine flu, so we prudently decided that she could not come to the hospital with us! (She is actually just having some seasonal allergy symptoms and is feeling fine.) So Omer stayed home to nurse Patsy back to health, and Lou and I went alone to the hospital.

Here is some great news: I am a candidate for CyberKnife surgery! 95% sure it will happen! We won't know for sure till they look at the MRI next Thursday. If there are creepy tendrils coming off the psoas tumor, then I would need regular radiation instead of CyberKnife.

I learned that I am in pretty good shape; that I could be having some unpleasant effects from the psoas tumor but I am not. Like lots of pain, loss of balance, that kind of thing.

I also learned that I would be able to go ahead with the lung surgery (to remove those four nodules) really soon after the CyberKnife.

The following not-so-good news is just a dose of reality.

The psoas tumor is actually right up against L4 and has eaten away a bit at the bone. I was sort of horrified by that because I pictured termites eating away at load-bearing beams. But Dr Morris said it wasn't that bad. It does NOT mean that the cancer is "in the bones."

I probably do not have the choice of regular surgery versus CyberKnife. The choice is probably between CyberKnife and regular radiation. Regular surgery so close to the spine is possible but fraught with possible complications (like ending up in a wheelchair).

Dr Morris made it clear that, although they probably can kill this psoas tumor, and the surgery can remove the nodules in my lungs, that I ought to expect the cancer to come back again at some point. I mean, there are five spots right now, so statistically speaking, it will probably be back.

So the plan has to be:

• We get rid of it now.
• We keep watching for it.
• We get rid of it whenever it pops up.
• We make sure that I am around in the future when even better options become available!