Met with Dr. Sullivan today for all the test results. It was a bad news/good news meeting. The good news was all my other organs are cancer free (kidney, liver, lungs, etc.) so the cancer has not spread to them.
The bad news is the cancer that we thought was a 4 inch tumor in my colon, has gone thru the colon wall and into my pelvis area. He held up his hands about the size of a cantaloupe. I don't know if it's actually that big though. I haven't seen any of the images.
The bad part is that there are alot of important blood veins in that area he says. The veins that go to your legs, etc. The cancer has enveloped the blood veins. He says the surgery is going to be a hard surgery because of all the blood vessels involved now.
The game plan is chemo and radiation for 6 weeks to shrink the cancer as much as possible, and then a surgeon will try and remove what is left. He has given me the name of a really good surgeon that is in Dallas. Dr. Litchfield is his name I think. I have an appointment with him next Friday. He also has given me the name of Texas Oncology on Mayfield in Arlington to get the chemo and radiation done at.
Right now my plan is to schedule the chemo and radiation appointments for after work. I will see how that goes physically. I can't miss work because we don't have sick leave there. We have something called PTO (personal time off). I earn about 5.5 hours every 2 weeks. You have to use that for sick leave, vacation, anytime you need off from work. I have a weeks worth saved right now. I don't want to use it. I want to save it for the actual surgery part, so yes, I am going to try my best and work while doing the chemo and radiation. Thank God for short term disability too!
So while the news could had been better, it could had been alot worse too. Bill and I both took a deep sigh of relief, and are now concentrating on what we have been dealt to deal with.
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