Saturday, May 16, 2009

Went to Albuquerque for surgeon consutation in prep for laparoscopy in belly to get biospy of tumors. Surprised to hear surgeon say that they didn't do belly laparoscopies there! I had thought that it was a done deal. The surgeon suggested that he could find a lymph node somewhere else that would be easier to remove. He also stated that there was a surgeon in Gu who might "give it a try" or I could opt for major surgery that would put me down for 6-8 weeks from my construction business. "What do you think Mr Strickland?" I suggested that maybe a surgeon from the university might be called. The surgeon then acknowledged that there was one of the best lymphoma surgeons in the country there! However, he recommeded that he go ahead and find a lymph node somewhere accessible and proceed with a biopsy in the morning. He found a slightly enlarged node in my groin area. OK..fine.........I got ahold of my oncologist late in the day and told her what was going on. She was surprised and called the surgeon to say that it was unlikely that it was a cancerous node because it had not shown up on the March PET scan. The next morning I had the biopsy.....very quick procedure. The surgeon found Roberta in the waiting room and told here that the 50/50 chance of it being a cancerous tumor was reduced to 1%.............. it looked pretty normal. I now have an appointment to return May 26th and maybe we'll get the ball rolling to get the university surgeon on to do the laparoscopic biopsy!

No comments:

Post a Comment