More Surgery

November 11th We got a call with the good news that the lymph nodes that were removed during surgery was not cancerous!! That was a big relief! The nurse told me that there was a chance I may have to go in and have another surgery to remove more from my neck. She said they were still waiting on the pathology report.

November 16th I went back to the surgeon for a follow up. He told us again about the lymph nodes being cancer free. He told us that it was especially good because of where they were. He would not have been able to go back in to remove anymore, which would have meant needing other treatments, so that was very good.

He then said, now we have something else to discuss. I knew then that I was having surgery. He explained to us that the margins they cleared were from the tumor on my neck, however what the pathologist found when he dissected and tested the area he removed was that the tumor was growing under the skin along the old scar from where they had removed the area in 2005 and 2006. This meant that he needed to go back and clear the margins from that part of the tumor.

He also mentioned that sometimes a tumor will skip over an area of skin and grow; so if the area he removes this second time is clear then I am done, however, if there is any of the tumor there he would have to do yet a third surgery to clear the margins again. He didn’t sound like that was likely, but nothing about this has been “normal”, so it is hard to say.

He mentioned that the pathologist was scared of me because of how gray my case is, it has been very hard for all the pathologists and Doctors to deal with. He went and looked at my slides himself and between him and the pathologist they decided with the history of my case it is best to go back and make sure the margins are cleared.

November 30th we will meet with the oncologist at the University Cancer Center.

December 1st scheduled for surgery at the University Hospital.