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You are welcome to apply any part of this article to your own personal use. Please do NOT publish any part of the article or apply any part of it to any non-personal use without the express written concent of the author.
Hi all,
Well, the visit to Gainsville turned out much better than we had dared to hope!
We saw the peripheral nerve specialist on Monday, who confirmed that we should see the orthopedic oncologist. He then arranged for us to see the new guy on Tuesday morning right after having a post-operative MRI done.
Tuesday morning was supposed to be the most spectacular meteor shower in 100 years, so we got up early to see it. Unfortunately the full moon made it difficult to see the lesser ones, but we did get to see a few. I mention this because shooting stars are good for wishes. As you can imagine we had plenty of wishes.
After the MRI we saw the orthopedic oncologist. Where most orthopedists would see maybe one or two sarcomas every five years or so, this guy does nothing but soft tissue sarcomas in the body limbs and sees half a dozen new patients every week.
He was very clear: Yes, it is a "high grade" (very aggressive) Leiomyosarcoma. But because it is relatively small and far away from the main part of the body, the treatment is expected to be 95% successful (there's only a 5% chance that it will reappear). And the treatment... 5-6 weeks of radiation therapy, followed by a 3-4 week rest, followed by surgery to remove the growth plus enough surrounding tissue to be safe. Some skin will have to be removed in the surgery, but that's easily remedied using a skin graft. He was also certain that the involved nerve was not a motor nerve to be concerned about, pointing out in the MRI what he says is the motor nerve much deeper inside the leg.
That means: no "floppy foot" which also means that I don't have to contemplate becoming known as Capt. Peg-Leg. It wouldn't have worked anyway. I do have the parrot. But there are no tattoos and no earrings, and some members of the crew would object vehemently should I attempt either of those.
We're being referred to a radiologist in Boynton Beach, about an hour's drive north of Ft. Lauderdale, for the radiation treatment. We could start as early as later on this week. That means that we'll be free of doctor visits during the Christmas holidays, and that I should be fully recovered from the surgery by my birthday at the end of February.
We've gone through quite a roller-coaster ride with this. First, it was a cyst. Then it was for sure a benign growth next to the nerve. Then it was benign surrounding the nerve, but I'd be crippled if it were removed. Then it was diagnosed as aggressively malignant. Then the Gainsville nerve specialist said he'd be surprised if it was the kind of growth as diagnosed as they were extremely rare. Since the treatment options depended heavily on the type of tumor it was and which particular nerve it was surrounding, we had no idea as to what was ahead of us. And, of course, given our lively imaginations, we were seeing all kinds of bad outcomes. And now it looks like it's going to be a piece of cake.
I'm not planning another broadcast for a while, unless something unexpected turns up. But I will send out an update just before the surgery.
Thank you all for your warm thoughts and wishes. It worked.
Fair winds,
Capt. Edmund "Bear" Downing
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