Lightly Organized Chaos

I’m waiting for my surgical appointment to start. My original date (last Monday) was postponed until today (Wednesday). Assuming everything goes well, I’ll likely be in the hospital until Saturday or Sunday.

Let’s see. I managed to sprain my ankle late last week. That has kept me from lots of activities I might otherwise have enjoyed if I could walk.

Otherwise the bunch of doctor’s appointments I hobbled through yielded two practical results: my next surgery is scheduled for Nov. 17, and I’m now cleared to drive.

I did spend some time planning a trip to the 2009 Tour de France. I’ve always wanted to see it live, and the route seems optimal for enjoying the finish at Mont Ventoux as well as arrival in Paris (since they’re back-to-back). Besides Lance is supposed to be back at the Tour; possibly going for an eighth overall win at the event.

Not much else going on in my world.

I managed to get to campus last wednesday, but not since. Getting to and from campus is going to involve cars for me, at least for the time being, and until I get cleared to drive, I won’t make it there much. Luckily, I have an appointment on Monday with my surgeon where he might clear me for more activities.

Which reminds me, can anyone give me a lift to Baltimore in time for a 2pm appointment on Monday, Oct. 20?

The results of last week’s CT show the stomach tumor is stable, and the nodule on my lung has shrunk. I’m still looking at a future surgery for the stomach tumor, but the lung nodule is going to be monitored to see if it resolves on it’s own.

Otherwise not much else going on at the moment.

Let me give a brief timeline of the last week by way of update and explanation of my relative absence from life.

Wednesday 10/1

Got the final biopsy results which surprisingly indicate that the tumor isn’t a GIST, but a leiomyoma - which is a benign, non-cancerous tumor. While the oncology team has been careful to point out that the biopsy only represents a small number of cells in the tumor, this is at least good news.

[For the record I only figured out that this is non-cancerous a minute ago (why don't they tell us these things?), and Missi hasn't even heard yet (she's asleep).]

Thursday 10/2

Woke up at 5:30 am with a temp of 102.2, which climbed by 6:30 am to almost 105.0. Took Tylenol and started a 3-day argument with Missi about going to the doctor’s office. I ended up agreeing to getting blood samples, urine, and chest films taken locally and having the results sent to Baltimore for examination. But mostly I slept as much as I could.

Friday 10/3

More sleep. I don’t think my temp went about 103.5, but I don’t really remember much.

Saturday 10/4

I ate something on saturday, but not much. I felt better; stayed up for a few hours at a time, and my temperature was in a more “normal” fever range of 101-102.5.

Sunday 10/5

Feeling much better, I managed to actually be hungry at some point. My temp never made it past 101.4. I broke down and asked for chinese food in the middle of the night. This marks the first time that I’ve eaten something I’d recognize from my childhood since the operation. As a side note, Shanghai Cafe Chinese Restaurant, has pretty good szechwan shrimp.

Monday 10/6

Pretty much back to normal after what I’m arguing was just a cold. It was pretty grim, but isn’t everything after major surgery? I also stopped wearing my heart-hugger as a matter of course today. I’ll wear it if I expect to need it, but otherwise, I’m flying solo.

Tuesday 10/7

I shopped online, then chilled and realized that I was felling well enough to be bored. I ended up inviting James, Darya, and Scott over to watch the debate. I won’t comment on the debate, but I think we had a decent time.

Wednesday 10/8

Went to lunch with Galileo (sushi), and then stopped by my research group’s weekly staff meeting. Charles drove me home where I promptly collapsed with exhaustion. I guess lunch and a meeting are my limit at the moment.

So that’s the last week. Hopefully the unanswered e-mails and open questions were addressed in the account. I look forward to hearing from (and seeing!) you all before they put me back under the knife. I’ll also keep you updated on the nodule on my lung (going for a CT tomorrow) as I hear more.

The definitive results won’t be in until later this week, but the preliminary finding is that I have a “GastroIntestinal Stromal Tumor” (GIST). A GIST is a type of sarcoma, which in turn is a type of cancer. It’s pretty rare (of course), about 3,000-3,500 cases in the US annually. The good news is that they’re talking cure not treatment. But it’ll be another open surgery (the tumor is badly placed for lathroscopic surgery).

In other news there is apparently a nodule on my left lung and some kind of spots on my kidney.

My next step is to get another CT scan, this time with IV contrast (or possibly a PET scan). We’ll know more about all of the above masses after that scan. Pending new information from the coming tests, I’ll probably be going back for surgery sometime around mid-november…