Good News

Yesterday's consultation with Dr C went really well.  He talked to us for about 30 minutes.

He explained all about both cyroablation and radiofrequency ablation (RFA). They are both serious procedures; neither one sounds like a walk in the park. For example, he uses conscious sedation for both because during the first part when he is inserting the needle probles into the tumors, he needs the patient to hold their breath at certain times, so that the tumor is not a moving target.  Yikes!

It turns out that I might be a better candidate for cryoablation (freezing) than RFA (heating), because most of the lung tumors are located along the periphery where all the nerves are.

With RFA, more of the surrounding normal tissue is destroyed. With cryoablation, less of the surrounding normal tissue is destroyed; that is, when the cold wears off, the normal tissue wakes back up. When the tumor is on the periphery, it is better to use cryoablation to save the nerves, so you don't end up with areas of numbness along the ribs. (I already have enough numbness down my leg from the CyberKnife, ha ha.)

Anyway, Dr C is going to talk to Dr R to come up with a plan. There is no rush, because all the lung tumors are really small.

This was great news. I had a great day yesterday. Of course, I slept alot.