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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 Please do NOT publish any part of the article or apply any part of it to any non-personal use without the express written concent of the author.
Namaste, dear readers.
A lot has happened since the last dispatch. I received and read the surgeon's operation report, then met with my medical oncologist and reviewed the pathology report with him. Lastly we met with the surgeon for a follow-up visit. These left me with mixed feelings.
All the sarcoma cells were viable (alive) - none were necrotic (dead). That means that the chemotherapy did little more than prevent the nodules from growing larger. It did not kill them.
This was extremely disappointing. It was the most aggressive treatment plan available, but it didn't do all that well while profoundly compromising my body.
It is possible that I still have some of those little critters floating around, either already attached or getting ready to attach to my lungs for another bout. It's also possible that there's nothing left, that 100% of the metastatic cells were removed by the surgery. The problem is that there's no way of knowing for sure which of those two possibilities is accurate.
This information put me into a blue funk until I met with the surgeon and got his interpretation of the pathology report and his operation report.
The surgeon did not have to remove ANY lobes of the lungs, but only removed one large segment from the upper left lobe, one small segment from the upper right lobe and one small segment from the middle right lobe. The left lower and right lower lobes presented only healthy tissues.
The surgeon got EVERYTHING that was getable. He even got some cancer that wasn't showing up on the CT Scans.
Pathology reported that every cancer cell found in the removed sections was metastatic leiomyosarcoma. This confirms that the lung lesions did not contain another cancer that also needed treatment.
The large segment from the upper left lobe contained one of the nodules that showed on the CT Scan. It also contained some tissue that appeared to the surgeon's eye to be scaring of some sort - this "scar" tissue did not appear on any CT Scans. But because it was not normal healthy tissue the surgeon removed that part as well. Pathology confirmed that the "scar" tissue was in reality more metastatic leiomyosarcoma. This is the news that brought me out of my blue funk. The chances that all of the cancer was caught and removed increased significantly with that perspective.
At the end of it all, I have about 66% of my left upper lobe by volume and 100% of my left lower lobe. The right side fared much better. After the two small resections I was left with about 97% of my right lung by volume. With the lung material I have left I probably won't be running any marathons or climbing Mt. Everest, but I will be able to do just about everything else I want.
As far as the recovery from the surgery and long-term effects of the chemo is concerned, currently I can sleep only on my back or while sitting upright. We'll move back aboard Volant when I am again able to sleep on my side, hopefully within a week or two. Until then we're staying in a condo overlooking the marina and visiting the boat daily (about a mile walk, round trip) for email and other small projects. My hair is beginning to grow, but slower than normal for now (I'm only shaving every third day instead of daily). I'll likely let my hair grow when the growth rate returns to normal; for now I'm continuing to shave my head as well as my face. Eyebrows have begun to appear along with eyelashes. I'm beginning to taste food again, and have begun to spice up my meals with hot sauces as I used to do. I'm still on pain medications (narcotic, habit-forming), but am working at reducing them. Hopefully I'll be totally free of them within the next several weeks. I should be back to almost normal by within a week or two of getting off the pain medications.
No more chemotherapy is scheduled, nor is any other type of treatment scheduled. As my recovery from the surgery and chemotherapy progresses my life will be returning to normal, which includes planning and executing our next adventure(s).
Our plans will always include periodic CT Scans. These are designed to catch any further development as early as possible. For the next year or so these scans are set for every three months. Beyond that they'll be less frequent, eventually down to about once every year.
In summary this Cancer Voyage is done. Stay tuned to this website for further dispatches as our further adventures unfold.
Namaste, dear readers, and fair winds.
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