Post-op Progress Report #14

It's a TOUCHDOWN!!

Metaphorically, that is. The Pathology report came back with the confirmation that Carolyn's tumor was indeed lymphoma rather than adenoma. Thus, in having the rarest type of stomach cancer, she has one of the most common, and most treatable type of cancer overall. All the lymph nodes examined tested negative for cancer cells and the boundaries of the tumor and stomach removed also show clearly negative for cancer cells. The only "bad news" in the path report is that the tumor had, in fact, infiltrated through the stomach wall and into the surrounding fatty tissue. This fact will have to be evaluated by a medical oncologist and a plan of adjunct therapy agreed upon. Carolyn has an appointment next Thursday with Dr. Wu to do exactly that.

The actual reason for the appointment this morning with Dr. Herr was to have the stitches (er, staples) removed. Carolyn had a cut from the top of her rib cage to her navel which was held together with carefully placed staples.

With a fancy medical staple remover, Dr. Herr removed the 39 staples in less time than it would have taken me to remove that many staples from a collection of papers. Only one of the wounds bled. Carolyn says it feels so much better not to have so many staples in her chest and belly. This wound looks so much better t