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Hi all,
Well, I just got back from having the neuro testing. It's confirmed: the involved nerve performs motor functions. Bummers!
Here's the new plan: On Monday afternoon we operate again. The doctor wants to go in again before scar tissue has a chance to build up. This time we have some test equipment to be absolutely certain that the nerve controls calf and foot muscle functions. Most likely it'll be confirmed that it's a motor nerve, and Plan "A" will kick in. If it turns out to be sensory only (a very, very small likelihood), Plan "B" kicks in. Plan "A" calls for taking a chunk of the growth to send off to the lab for analysis and then use lasers to shave as much of the growth as possible without doing any damage to the nerve itself. Plan "B" calls for clipping the nerve, totally removing the section with the growth and sending a sample of the growth to the lab for analysis.
The lab analysis should take about a week. It's almost a certainty that it's a benign growth. When the results come back we'll evaluate more options, depending on whether the lab says it's benign or malignant. Here are all four options, with what I believe are their chances of happening:
== Plan "A" Benign (90%) -- We'll have to watch for the growth to come back again, then repeat the shaving as needed. That may be many years away.
== Plan "B" Benign (5%) --We're all done.
== Plan "B" Malignant (4%) -- There may be follow-up to deal with the cancer. We'll cross that bridge if we come to it.
== Plan "A" Malignant (1%) -- We'll have to go back in and remove the growth and the nerve, and then deal with the loss of motor functionality in my leg and foot.
We discussed the options for more specialized attention. There's Stanford, back in our ol' stompin' grounds in Palo Alto, California. There's New Orleans, Louisiana. And there's Gainsville, Florida, just a few hours drive away. My neurosurgeon knows the doctors in each of these hospitals, and has referred patients to them before. In my case he feels that none could be expected to do anything more than what he could do.
One thing we did learn: the growth might be a neurofibroma (involving the nerve) and it might be a growth in or on the nerve sheath itself. If it's the latter then shaving the growth is expected to be a permanent cure. Unfortunately they won't know until they get into the process of removing the growth and find that there's a boundary between the growth and the nerve fibers.
So for now, we just hang in there. I'll probably have a bit more of the la-la-juice on Monday, as the neurosurgeon wants me to be comfortable (in other words, he doesn't want me to kick my leg just as he's started with the laser). So I expect I won't be able to report on what happened until Tuesday at the earliest.
All for now...
Fair winds,
Capt. Edmund "Bear" Downing
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