Well, a lot has happened since my last post. Not all good I'm afraid. The Oncology doc spoke with us yesterday and informed us that even though the frozen section that was taken last Thursday after our sons surgery was benign, they have since found during the full pathology, a few very small pockets of cancer cells in the rest of the tumor. But I spoke to the oncology doc again today after he had gotten the full written pathology report and he said that they believe it is in the middle as far as aggressive or non-aggressive cancers. The path report says that it appears that again, it is a mature tumor and the good thing is that the cells in it do not seem to be aggressive and are basically "turning off" in a sense. This is all very good. What is important is to do some full body scans, where they scan him from head to toe after having drunk some dye mixtures. They can literally see any cancer cells anywhere in the body this way. They will also do a bone marrow scan to make sure it has not gone into the bone anywhere. But they cannot do this immediately because he has since developed a condition called Chylothorax. This is not an uncommon thing in chest surgeries, especially heart surgeries. It is where the lymph system and lymph ducts in the chest cavity have been traumatized and cannot empty the "lymph", the fats, cholesterol etc., produced from fatty foods. So he cannot eat or drink because they must allow the lymph system to relax and repair itself, so the only nutrition he can get is through IV's. It could take a week or two weeks to clear. But the Oncologist cannot do the scans yet because Kostia cannot eat or drink anything right now and he must also have his chest tube removed before they can scan. The fluids from his chest tube are clearing much better just in the last couple of days since being on the IV nutrition so this is going ok. The doc said it's not a problem to wait a while for the scans, probably will be next week. In the meantime, they have already sent some tumor samples to both Boston and LA. One is going to THE top specialist in the country in this type of tumor, to make sure he concurs with our pathologists findings about the cancer cells being mature and non-aggressive. We should have these results back by Friday hopefully.
The Oncologist is hopeful that these things all being the case, there is a good chance that the cancer was only in the tumor itself and if this is the true, no further treatments would be necessary at all, he just goes home and lives a full life. If they do find other cells somewhere, it's not good. But he says he feels good about what they have found so far. So, we wait.
He has been incredibly brave. I have seen him cry once in almost a week and that was when an idiot nurse pucked him up out of bed by his armpits and it really pulled his stitches and chest tube.. He's playing video games from his bed and watching all the kid videos they have, which is a lot.
My wife is amazingly strong. When we were told about the cancer cells, after everyone left, she had a few tears but she never did break down. She is amazingly cheerful everyday. She sleeps at the hospital, showers there, lifts him in and out of bed most of the time etc.. What a mom. Man, I'm proud of her. We are certainly hoping that the cancer was contained completely within the tumor. If it isn't, we'll deal with that burning bridge if we have to come to it.
People from work keep asking me how it feels being married. I tell them I don't have any idea, she sleeps at the hospital every night, I sleep at home.. But it's really ok. This experience has been deepening our bond immeasurably. Life happens right? Adapt or die.
Sorry for the rather huge explanation.. I guess it helps a little to write it all down..
Later,
Oscar
